Winds of Change Newsletter, September 2005     See sidebar for table of contents

Energy Bill: Billion$ of Reasons to Support Real Campaign Finance Reform

Vice prez Dick Cheney’s secret energy task force (open only to fossil fuel honchos) and Congress’ pork fest gave us the 1,724 page energy law-monstrosity. It gives no thought to our kids’ future and dangerously ignores the devastating news on global warming. The new law:

• Contains new limits on public participation in energy-related decisions, alterations of clean water law and pre-emption of states’ rights when it comes to building electricity transmission lines and liquefied natural gas port facilities.
• Does nothing to protect the environment against the depredation of drilling, mining and nuclear-waste disposal.
• Does not mandate higher fuel efficiency for automobiles.
• Hands a multibillion-dollar gift to the oil and coal industries, which were already making record profits, including a $1.8 billion program to promote “clean” coal.
• Gives the nuclear industry $14.3 billion in subsidies and tax breaks, plus unlimited taxpayer-backed loan guarantees and insurance protection for new reactors.
• Gives the lion’s share of funding for “renewable” energy to Big Corn for ethanol, which a recent study found takes more energy to create than it yields.

If all of the bill’s programs are funded, the law’s price tag will reach $81 billion, and most of the windfall will go to the already profitable oil and coal industries. Now they can hire even more lobbyists to stuff the campaign coffers of “our” politicians.