Energy bill is a disaster, yet passes House

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives again passed a disastrous energy bill. As Americans dig deeper into their pockets to pay their utility bills and fill up their gas tanks, this bill keeps the oil and utility companies in the driver’s seat. As gasoline prices careen out of control, it keeps America on a collision course with more oil consumption, more drilling, and more pollution. When it comes to solving America’s pressing energy problems, this bill can only be classified as a miserable failure. This bill fails to reduce America’s dependence on oil, fails to address the threat of global warming, fails to make any new investments in clean energy, and by the President’s own admission, fails to help consumers at the gas pump. Simply, this energy bill doesn’t meet America’s 21st century needs.

A couple of bright spots are that the Eugene Register-Guard and The Oregonian had strong editorials against this energy bill this morning.

An excerpt from The Oregonian:

"The time is ripe for a transformational energy policy. But Congress' collective vision is stunted and regressive.

The bill promises about $8.5 billion in tax breaks and additional billions in subsidies and loan guarantees for the oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear and electricity industries."

And my favorite parts of the Register-Guard editorial:

"The bill would also damage the environment. It would require inventories of offshore oil and gas reserves in the protected outer continental shelf. The intent is clear: to lay the groundwork for drilling in sensitive coastal zones such as those off the Oregon Coast. ..."

"...President Bush says he wants an energy bill to sign before Congress begins its summer break this weekend. Americans would be better served if lawmakers ran this bill through a shredder and started over when they returned."

Instead of reducing America’s oil consumption and protecting consumers at the gasoline pump, the bill lavishes tax breaks, subsidies and environmental exemptions for oil companies such as ExxonMobil, which are reaping record profits because of soaring gasoline prices.

Instead of adopting the Senate passed renewable energy standard to increase clean renewable energy generation, the bill forces American taxpayers to subsidize the construction of six new nuclear plants and more than a dozen coal plants.

Instead of requiring reductions in global warming pollution, the bill provides more than $13.1 billion in new tax breaks for the major sources of this pollution, the oil, coal and gas industry.

The bill also paves the way for future drilling off currently protected coastlines and preempts states’ rights in siting dangerous Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities and transmission lines.

In this bill, the big winners are Big Oil and the coal and nuclear industries, while American consumers and our environment pay the price.

Here is a link to our up to date analysis of the energy bill: http://newenergyfuture.com/newenergy.asp?id2=16790&id3=energy&. For more information, or to get involved in our efforts to stop this bad bill, contact OSPIRG's Jeremiah Baumann at jeremiah@ospirg.org.