The President of the League of Conservation Voters [1] gave his praise to the U.S. Senate for passing the first major energy bill in two decades. LCV President Gene Karpinski made a public statement [2] Friday expressing the league's support for the Senate energy bill passed yesterday, which calls for a minimum 35 miles per gallon standard by 2020.

However, the Senate bill is not without its flaws. Several initiatives that the league supports did not find their way into the final bill. An amendment to remove $32 billion in tax breaks for oil companies and redirect funds to spur ethanol and renewable fuel production -- as supported by U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri [3] of New York -- was blocked in the Senate.

U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner's [4] support for an amendment to require all electric utilities to produce 20% of their electricity from renewable resources like wind and solar power was ignored by the Senate. Instead, a similar requirement was introduced, mandating utilities to produce 15% of their electricity from renewable resources; the initiative eventually failed to make its way into the final bill. Still, Karpinski called the Senate bill "a down payment on the Senate's promise towards our goal of addressing global warming pollution."