Federal Energy Bush [RE-wrenches]

[Joel Davidson]

Dear Allan,
Thank you for the summary.
Bush the Younger is the same as Bush the Elder.
Below is an editorial from today's Los Angeles Times.
Best regards,
Joel Davidson

                   An Energy Throwback
                   It's clear why Republican leaders in Congress kept their
                   national energy policy bill locked up in a conference
                   committee room for the last month, safe from review by
                   the public. Taxpayers, had they been given time to
                   digest the not-so-fine print in the pork-laden legislation,
                   would have revolted.

                   This throwback bill promotes tried-and-failed coal, gas,
                   oil and nuclear industry programs at the expense of
                   conservation and renewable energy. A Congressional
                   Budget Office estimate puts the cost of tax credits, loan
                   guarantees and other giveaways at $31.1 billion —
                   though once all of the pork is weighed, critics say the
                   tab could top $100 billion.

                   The bill that cleared the House on Tuesday continued
                   the welcome prohibition against oil and natural gas
                   drilling in the Alaskan wilderness. But the rest of the bill
                   has a frustrating business-as-usual feel. Automakers
                   won't be required to increase the fuel efficiency of new
                   vehicles, and the alternative power industry won't get a
                   needed boost from a rejected requirement that electric
utilities generate 10% of
                   their electricity from renewable energy sources. Attempts to
prevent another
                   massive blackout by giving federal regulators the muscle to
police the electric
                   generation and distribution industries were stymied by
power-rich states in the
                   Southeast and Northwest.

                   And it gets worse: Producers of methyl tertiary-butyl ether,
or MTBE, the
                   gasoline additive that is fouling groundwater in California
and other states, get
                   protection from environmental lawsuits aimed at forcing them
to clean up their
                   mess. Cash-strapped cities and states would have to pick up
the MTBE cleanup
                   costs, estimated at $29 billion. Not coincidentally, MTBE
manufacturing plants
                   are clustered in the backyards of Republican representatives
who rode herd on
                   the bill.

                   Democrats didn't want to be left out of the feeding frenzy;
in a bipartisan effort,
                   two farm-state senators, Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Charles
Grassley (R-Iowa),
                   won a costly ethanol subsidy that has the National Corn
Growers Assn. grinning.

                   How this goody-laden bill came into being is just as ugly.
Republicans wrote the
                   1,100-page document behind closed doors and dropped it on the
desks of
                   Democrats just 48 hours before the conference committee's
final meeting
                   Monday, in which Democrats attempting damage control lost
every significant
                   vote 7-6 along party lines.

                   The Bush administration, which earlier ordered Congress to
hold the giveaways
                   to $8 billion, says it will accept the bill regardless of the
cost. The full House
                   rubber-stamped the bill Tuesday, and Senate leaders are
confident they've stuffed
                   enough pork into it to secure needed votes from Republicans
and Democrats
                   alike. Now it's up to senators with a conscience to reject
this legislative
                   monument to waste or to muster and sustain a filibuster.

Allan Sindelar wrote:

> Below is a summary of the Energy Bill's major provisions prepared by
> the Majority (R) staff of the Energy Committee. Below that is a critique of
> the bill done by the Minority (D) staff.
>
> Here are a few things the bill does not contain:
> 1) ANWR drilling authorization;
> 2) A mandatory increase in CAFÉ standards;
> 3) Abandoned Mine Land Program reauthorization;
> 4) Authorization for an inventory of offshore oil and gas reserves;
> 5) Language delaying the issuance of the Mercury MACT rule;
> 6) Natural gas price floor guarantees for the AK pipeline; and
> 7) A renewable portfolio standard for electricity generation.
>

<snip>

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