Fwd: Stop Energy Bill Promoting Nuclear Power & Drilling in Alaska

[Guest guest]

Subj: Tell Congress NOW to Kill the Energy Bill! Vote as early as Tuesday

10/17/2003 11:58:32 AM Eastern Standard Time

bhoffman

 

*** Apologies for cross-posting ***

*** Please forward widely ***

 

!!! A C T I O N A L E R T !!!

 

TELL CONGRESS TO KILL THE ENERGY BILL!

VOICE your opposition in a FREE FAX to your senators:

http://www.stopenergybill.org

 

CALL your senators! (Connect through the Capitol Switchboard:

202-224-3121)

 

October 17, 2003

 

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE -- A FINAL VOTE MAY COME AS EARLY AS NEXT WEEK

House and Senate versions of the comprehensive energy bill (H.R.6, " The

Energy Policy Act of 2003 " ) are currently being negotiated in a

conference committee, chaired by unabashed energy industry cheerleaders

Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Rep. W.J. " Billy " Tauzin (R-La.). This

diabolical duo takes the Bush energy policy as gospel; they are

re-crafting the bill to suit special interests with virtually no input

from the other members of the committee. If passed into law, H.R.6

would be a windfall for the oil, gas, and nuclear industries, but a

disaster for consumers, taxpayers, and the environment.

 

This could be our last opportunity to defeat this extremely damaging

legislation. Tell your senators to oppose H.R.6, and instead support

Sen. Jeffords' alternative, the " Electric Reliability Security Act of

2003, " a responsible and forward-looking energy bill. Find out more

about Sen. Jeffords' bill at this URL:

http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/electricity/energybill/article\

s.cfm?ID=10590

 

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 update 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.

 

======================================

 

Brendan Hoffman

Organizer, Nuclear Energy & Waste

Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program

Public Citizen

p: 202.454.5130

f: 202.547.7392

bhoffman

www.citizen.org/cmep

 

 

 

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