Energy Bill Update
Dear Friends:
The latest news seeping from the Senate-House energy conference committee is that an agreement may be near on the comprehensive energy bill (now known as HR 6)—a bill that gets worse and worse with each passing day, as yet another corporate interest adds another piece to its portfolio.
However, there are still some sticky issues, and it is vital that Congress hear from its constituents that the energy bill is not salvageable, and must be defeated. If Congress thinks the public doesn't care much about the bill—that only energy production interests do—then the bill will pass. But if, in the current uncertainty over the bill the public uproar against it grows larger, then the bill can be defeated.
If you haven't yet called your Senators, or sent your free fax from Public Citizen's website (http://www.stopenergybill.org) please do so now. Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 or toll free at 1-800-839-5276. If you have called, please now ask your friends and colleagues to call.
This is also an excellent time to submit a letter to the editor of your local and regional newspapers—please do so early this week! A short sample letter is below.
We previously have sent you information about the nuclear sections of the bill—we still don't know what the additional nuclear construction incentive package will be: Sen. Domenici has kept that secret. But we thought you'd like to know some of the other things currently in the bill; the following is from our friends at Public Citizen.
H.R.6: A SPECIAL INTEREST SMorGASBorD
H.R.6 is a regressive package of subsidies to the energy industry and an affront to consumers and environmental protection. The legislation was born of Vice President Cheney's National Energy Policy Development Group (the "energy task force"), essentially a congress of energy industry representatives. The policy initiatives put forth by that exclusive, undemocratic group ultimately became H.R.6, the industry's dream bill.
This reprehensible bill, as currently drafted, does the following:
ELECTRICITY (likely provisions)
* Repeals the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA), which would allow for the expansion of deregulation and more Enron-style debacles
* Grants the power of eminent domain to the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) allowing it to seize private land to construct transmission lines, virtually eliminating local and state authority
* Alters the Federal Power Act's definition of "just and reasonable rates" to allow owners of transmission lines to charge consumers more for their use
NUCLEAR
* Extends the Price-Anderson Act insurance subsidy for 20 years to cover new reactors
* Authorizes more than $2 billion for nuclear energy research and development
* Authorizes U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Nuclear Power 2010 program to construct new nuclear plants and its Generation IV program to develop new reactor designs
* Allocates $865 million for research and development of nuclear reprocessing technologies
* Provides $1.1 billion for the Advanced Hydrogen Reactor Co-generation
Project, a radioactive boondoggle that would make a mockery of clean energy goals
* Weakens whistleblower protection
* Authorizes $30 million to fund "in-situ" leaching mining projects, which would encourage a method of uranium mining that could pollute drinking water in New Mexico
* Reclassifies radioactive waste from a former uranium extraction plant in Fernald, Ohio, so that it may be disposed in a dump not equipped to properly contain the waste's radioactivity, setting dangerous precedent for arbitrarily reclassifying radioactive waste
* Weakens constraints on U.S. exports of bomb-grade uranium
OIL & GAS
* Opens Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, an affront to conservation that would destroy pristine wilderness for a mere six-months' supply of oil
* Authorizes $500 million in loans with unspecified interest rates and repayment schedules to encourage companies to develop "unconventional" gas reserves, including coalbed methane
* Directs the U.S. Department of the Interior to inventory oil and natural gas in the outer continental shelf off the U.S. coast, paving the way for drilling in ecologically-sensitive coastal areas
* Exempts from the Safe Drinking Water Act a coalbed methane drilling technique called "hydraulic fracturing," a potential polluter of underground drinking water
* Waives permit requirements under the Clean Water Act for oil and gas exploration
* Gives tax breaks to big energy companies, estimated to range from $14.5 billion and $18.1 billion
MOTor FUEL
* Makes fuel economy standards difficult to !QU! by adding new requirements, thus inviting litigation from the automobile industry
* Extends the fraudulent program that provides flexible fuel credits for "duel fuel" automobiles, an enormous loophole which could decimate any savings from the Bush administration's puny fuel economy increase
* Enacts a liability waiver for the manufacturers of the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), a known contaminant of drinking water and possible carcinogen (Proposed)
What the energy bill does not include is also significant. Absent is a "Renewable Portfolio Standard" (RPS) requiring utilities to progressively incorporate renewable electricity-generation sources into their production portfolio, despite a letter from 53 Senators supporting this policy. The bill also fails to enact meaningful fuel economy standards or require significant reductions of so-called "greenhouse gases" that contribute to the phenomenon of global warming.
Please urge your Senators to filibuster against this bill. Join NIRS, Public Citizen and others, including the 12 leading Green Groups (such as Sierra Club, US PIRG, etc.) who are urging the Senate to stop this bill.
Sample letter to the editor (please feel free to add and pick out any of the more egregious problems listed above!):
Dear Editor:
The comprehensive energy bill (HR 6) about to be considered by the U.S. Senate and House has been crafted in virtual secrecy to implement an energy plan that would benefit the nuclear, oil and coal industries at the expense of the American taxpayers.
Instead of supporting the renewable energy technologies of the future, it would give billions of our tax dollars to wealthy utilities and energy producers to expand the failed technologies of the past. Instead of promoting energy efficiency, it would cause the creation of more deadly radioactive waste and air and water pollution. Instead of improving our nation's electricity grid, the result of this bill would be more Enron disasters and less energy security.
Senators (!QI! your senator's names) should take every step, including mounting a filibuster, to defeat this legislation.
Sincerely
Your name
Address
phone
As always, please feel free to call upon us if you need any help and organizing !QU!s.
One new item: Sen. James Jeffords (Vermont) is introducing a new bill (as yet unnumbered) to address electricity grid problems. Supporting this bill is a good alternative to HR 6, and this is something new you can tell your Senators when you call.
Let's STOP HR 6!
Michael Mariotte and Cindy Folkers
NIRS
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