tom,
Here's a summary of the Energy Bill from Public Citizen:
If passed into law, H.R.6 ("The Energy Policy Act of 2003") would be a windfall for the oil, gas, and nuclear industries, but a disaster for consumers, taxpayers, and the environment. We need senators to filibuster the bill. This is our FINAL CHANCE to defeat this terrible bill!
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! PLEASE ACT NOW!
citizen.org
The following is a detailed summary of the legislation:
H.R.6: A SPECIAL INTEREST SMORGASBORD
H.R.6, "The Energy Policy Act of 2003," 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.
Some of the most reprehensible provisions in the bill, as currently drafted, include:
ELECTRICITY
* 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.
* Gives the Department of Energy the authority to site transmission lines and distribution facilities, requiring only "consultation"
with states and an opportunity for comment
* Reverses the Federal Power Act's consumer protection requirements by allowing parties to enter into contracts for electricity
or natural gas that cannot be reviewed or challenged by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission except prospectively, with
the burden on FERC, under a "public interest" standard that is so high that it has rarely been met
* 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 a nuclear plant to co-generate hydrogen, a radioactive boondoggle that would make a mockery of
clean energy goals
* Weakens whistleblower protections that were passed in the House energy bill by excluding Department of Energy and
Nuclear Regulatory Commission employees and extending the deadline for final decisions on whistleblower claims from 180 to
540 days
* 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
* Requires the NRC to license uranium enrichment facilities within 2 years, removing environmental justice from the licensing
criteria; also classifies depleted uranium (UF6) as "low-level" radioactive waste, all of which benefits Louisiana Energy
Services, which wants to build a new uranium enrichment plant in New Mexico
OIL & GAS
* Gives billions of dollars in tax breaks to the oil and gas industry
* Creates a $2 billion program to encourage companies to develop "unconventional" gas reserves, including the mature
coal-bed methane industry
* 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
* Threatens public lands in Rocky Mountain states with oil and gas drilling at the expense of wildlife habitat
COAL
* Authorizes $1.8 billion for research into so-called "clean coal" technologies, which are no cleaner than older retrofitted coal
plants and will result in more greenhouse gas and mercury pollution
MOTOR FUEL
* Makes fuel economy standards difficult to update by adding new requirements, thus inviting litigation from the automobile
industry
* Extends the fraudulent program that provides flexible fuel credits for "dual 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.
AIR POLLUTION
* Amends the Clean Air Act to extend deadlines by which large metropolitan areas must meet federal guidelines governing
acceptable ozone levels, without requiring more stringent air pollution controls
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 for vehicles or require significant
reductions of "greenhouse gases" that contribute to the phenomenon of global warming. |
