mr. chairman , i want to thank the gentleman from michigan for yielding this time to me and commend him on his outstanding leadership with regard to the energy bill now before us .  i have supported the passage of comprehensive energy legislation for the last two congresses , and i rise in support of the measure that is before the house this afternoon .  while i do not support all of the sections of the bill , there are a number of provisions in the energy measure that i believe will enhance our nation 's energy policy and energy security .  for example , the legislation makes valuable improvements in the area of energy efficiency and renewable energy and would make permanent the northeast home heating oil reserve .  of particular interest to me is the title on coal which would provide for the implementation of the clean coal power initiative to develop projects that would utilize clean coal technologies .  the coal title also provides for the clean air coal program to enhance the deployment of fully developed clean coal technologies .  coal is our nation 's most abundant natural resource for energy production , and it is appropriate that we take steps to accomplish the goal of incenting coal use and thereby relieving to some extent the pressure that we are experiencing at the present time on natural gas prices .  the clean air coal program would help to advance that objective .  the electricity title in the energy bill contains some beneficial provisions , and i particularly want to call attention to the smart metering title which i proposed 2 years ago in order to accelerate the deployment of real-time metering .  when consumers have knowledge of the savings they can realize by using appliances during offpeak hours , the peaks can be flattened and the utilities can avoid the necessity of having to build some very expensive new generating facilities .  i am pleased that during the last congress , we were able to reach a compromise which is also reflected in the bill before us today regarding the application of section 210 of purpa , and the legislation contains the noncontroversial and much-needed section that would make transmission reliability standards mandatory .  i am concerned , however , that the bill before us includes a provision that would cap spending on the implementation of the reliability standards .  i am concerned about that and would hope that when this measure becomes law , enough money will be available for adequate enforcement .  i also remain concerned about the total repeal of the public utilities holding company act without ensuring that adequate consumer protections remain in place .  and i have not been convinced that there is a need to give the federal energy regulatory commission the ultimate authority to site transmission power lines .  i support the legislation and i encourage my colleagues to vote for it .  i want to conclude these remarks by complimenting again the gentleman from michigan ( mr. dingell )  on his outstanding leadership and also complimenting the gentleman from texas ( mr. barton )  of the committee on energy and commerce .  he was willing to work in a bipartisan fashion in order to establish consensus on a number of these measures .  i applaud him for that willingness and for the effective work that he has done in bringing this measure to the floor .  mr. chairman , i encourage the passage of the bill .  