GIP (Goddamned Icon Post)
Nov. 17th, 2003 12:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tzikehIf you go to http://www.senate.gov/ and choose your state, you will get to your senators' page, with their phone numbers.
From moveon.org:
This week, Congress will consider final passage of the Bush-Cheney energy bill.... finalized by Republican Senators and House members who literally locked Democrats out of the final negotiations.
Democrats and the public have been given just 48 hours to review the 1,000-page bill, released Saturday, before voting begins later today...[t]he bill is littered with at least $20 billion in subsidies to the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear industries...[t]he bill would also roll back the Clean Air Act...
Dear MoveOn member,
This week, Congress will consider final passage of the Bush-Cheney energy bill. The bill was developed in secret -- first drafted by a
Cheney task force whose very participant list was kept secret, even from Congress, and now finalized by Republican Senators and House members who literally locked Democrats out of the final negotiations.
Democrats and the public have been given just 48 hours to review the 1,000-page bill, released Saturday, before voting begins later today.
This is outrageous and simply unacceptable. The last time President Bush forced something unknown down our throats like this, we got the USA PATRIOT act.[1] Do we want to let him do to the environment and our energy supply what he's already done to our constitutional rights?
In the context of recent blackouts and the war in Iraq, all of our Senators will be under huge pressure to approve an energy bill, even if it doesn't address the key problems, as this one doesn't - see below for details. We've got to urge our Senators to stop this bill.
Please call your Senator(s) now.
Make sure the staffers know you're a constituent, then urge your Senators to:
"Please FILIBUSTER to stop the energy bill." [2] Give some reasons why you're concerned -- such as the secrecy surrounding the bill, or the harm it would cause, outlined below.
Please take a moment let us know you're calling, at:
http://www.moveon.org/callmade3.html?id=2127-3036131-mgd4kkda8rXNPaT35K1.RQ Keeping a count will help us stop this bill.
The bill is littered with at least $20 billion in subsidies to the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear industries. Although the bill is still being analzyed as of this writing, one credible estimate puts the subsidy figure at well over $100 billion. [3]
This bill won't solve America's urgent energy problems -- the need to reduce our dependence on oil by shifting to renewable energy sources,
the need to make America's energy supply more reliable, and the need to protect all of us who pay utility bills from Enron-style fraud. Instead, it will make matters worse in most of these areas.
In recent negotiations, it's also become a vehicle for massive attacks on clean air and clean water laws, which would risk our families'
health and pollute the environment our children will inherit. As Anna Aurilio of U.S. PIRG put it, "The big winner is big oil. The big loser is anyone who breathes, pays a utility bill or drinks water." [4]
Here are key excerpts from a recent story in the Washington Post [5]:
No Home Runs in Energy Bill
Little Impact Expected for Imported Oil, Pollution, Power Grid
The energy bill before Congress is a bulky tome of more than 1,000 pages, with thousands of provisions affecting every corner of the
country.
But for all its size, industry officials and environmental activists of widely divergent viewpoints generally agree that it will have only a modest impact on the nation's most pressing energy problems, including its reliance on foreign energy supplies, an overburdened electricity grid and fuels that pollute the air and may alter the atmosphere.
For those who want to deal aggressively with the dangers of climate change and air polluted by auto exhausts, power plants and factories, the bill is a disappointment.
...
...conservation savings... amount to only about three months of U.S. energy consumption between now and 2020, according to a preliminary estimate by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
The bill's GOP authors dropped a Senate-approved plan to require large utilities to steadily increase their use of energy from clean, renewable sources such as wind and solar power...
The bill does not require improvements in the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks, the main guzzlers of gasoline made from imported oil. The
current 27.5 miles per gallon average for cars could even decrease in the next decade because of several provisions in the bill, according
to some analysts...
...
The legislation's most far-reaching feature may be the repeal of the 1935 Public Utility Holding Company Act, which limits utility industry mergers. The act's repeal is a top priority for the electric power industry and the Bush administration, and if the bill passes, a wave of mergers and acquisitions could follow...
[End of Washington Post excerpts]
Repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act is a big problem. Trashing this vital regulation on utilities would worsen the conditions that enabled the recent Northeast power blackout. [6]
The bill would also roll back the Clean Air Act, allowing the air we breathe to stay polluted, in virtually any area where air pollution is a problem. This change would lead to thousands of additional asthma attacks, hospitalizations, and emergency room visits nationwide. [7]
And it would threaten our drinking water sources, by letting polluters off the hook for contaminating groundwater with pollutants like MTBE,
and by lifting Safe Drinking Water Act curbs on injecting diesel fuel and other chemicals underground during oil and gas development. [8]
These are just a few of the energy bill's worst features. For a comprehensive list of problems, based on the latest analysis, see:
http://www.moveon.org/energy-woes.pdf
We've got to urge our Senators to reject this bill. The only way to stop it is with a filibuster, the Senate's tactic of last resort to
stop especially dangerous proposals from becoming law.
Urge them to:
"Please FILIBUSTER to stop the energy bill." [2]
Please let us know you're calling, at:
http://www.moveon.org/callmade3.html?id=2127-3036131-mgd4kkda8rXNPaT35K1.RQ
Voting on this bill is expected to begin today. Please call now.
Thanks for all you do.
Sincerely,
- Carrie, Eli, James, Joan, Noah, Peter, Wes, and Zack
The MoveOn team
Monday, November 17th, 2003
P.S.: You can now see the bill at:
http://energy.senate.gov/legislation/energybill2003/energybill2003.cfm
Notes:
[1] "On October 25, 2001, 98 out of 99 voting senators hurriedly passed
the 342-page Patriot Act I - without any public debate and before most
of them had read it." http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0313/lee.php
[2] For more information on filibusters, see:
http://www.moveon.org/moveonbulletin/bulletin11.html
The New York Times has called for a filibuster on this energy bill, at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/29/opinion/29MON1.html
[3] We've posted a cost analysis by Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-CA) office:
http://www.moveon.org/energy_policy_cost_fact_sheet1.pdf
[4] As reported in the New York Times, at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/politics/16ENER.html?th
[5] For the full Washington Post story, see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46456-2003Nov15.html
[6] For more on the Public Utility Holding Company Act, see:
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/renewable_energy/page.cfm?pageID=118
[7] Source: U.S. Public Interest Research Group. See:
http://www.moveon.org/energy-factsheet-pirg.pdf
[8] For details, see:
http://www.foe.org/camps/leg/current/energyfacts.html
From moveon.org:
This week, Congress will consider final passage of the Bush-Cheney energy bill.... finalized by Republican Senators and House members who literally locked Democrats out of the final negotiations.
Democrats and the public have been given just 48 hours to review the 1,000-page bill, released Saturday, before voting begins later today...[t]he bill is littered with at least $20 billion in subsidies to the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear industries...[t]he bill would also roll back the Clean Air Act...
Dear MoveOn member,
This week, Congress will consider final passage of the Bush-Cheney energy bill. The bill was developed in secret -- first drafted by a
Cheney task force whose very participant list was kept secret, even from Congress, and now finalized by Republican Senators and House members who literally locked Democrats out of the final negotiations.
Democrats and the public have been given just 48 hours to review the 1,000-page bill, released Saturday, before voting begins later today.
This is outrageous and simply unacceptable. The last time President Bush forced something unknown down our throats like this, we got the USA PATRIOT act.[1] Do we want to let him do to the environment and our energy supply what he's already done to our constitutional rights?
In the context of recent blackouts and the war in Iraq, all of our Senators will be under huge pressure to approve an energy bill, even if it doesn't address the key problems, as this one doesn't - see below for details. We've got to urge our Senators to stop this bill.
Please call your Senator(s) now.
Make sure the staffers know you're a constituent, then urge your Senators to:
"Please FILIBUSTER to stop the energy bill." [2] Give some reasons why you're concerned -- such as the secrecy surrounding the bill, or the harm it would cause, outlined below.
Please take a moment let us know you're calling, at:
http://www.moveon.org/callmade3.html?id=2127-3036131-mgd4kkda8rXNPaT35K1.RQ Keeping a count will help us stop this bill.
The bill is littered with at least $20 billion in subsidies to the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear industries. Although the bill is still being analzyed as of this writing, one credible estimate puts the subsidy figure at well over $100 billion. [3]
This bill won't solve America's urgent energy problems -- the need to reduce our dependence on oil by shifting to renewable energy sources,
the need to make America's energy supply more reliable, and the need to protect all of us who pay utility bills from Enron-style fraud. Instead, it will make matters worse in most of these areas.
In recent negotiations, it's also become a vehicle for massive attacks on clean air and clean water laws, which would risk our families'
health and pollute the environment our children will inherit. As Anna Aurilio of U.S. PIRG put it, "The big winner is big oil. The big loser is anyone who breathes, pays a utility bill or drinks water." [4]
Here are key excerpts from a recent story in the Washington Post [5]:
No Home Runs in Energy Bill
Little Impact Expected for Imported Oil, Pollution, Power Grid
The energy bill before Congress is a bulky tome of more than 1,000 pages, with thousands of provisions affecting every corner of the
country.
But for all its size, industry officials and environmental activists of widely divergent viewpoints generally agree that it will have only a modest impact on the nation's most pressing energy problems, including its reliance on foreign energy supplies, an overburdened electricity grid and fuels that pollute the air and may alter the atmosphere.
For those who want to deal aggressively with the dangers of climate change and air polluted by auto exhausts, power plants and factories, the bill is a disappointment.
...
...conservation savings... amount to only about three months of U.S. energy consumption between now and 2020, according to a preliminary estimate by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
The bill's GOP authors dropped a Senate-approved plan to require large utilities to steadily increase their use of energy from clean, renewable sources such as wind and solar power...
The bill does not require improvements in the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks, the main guzzlers of gasoline made from imported oil. The
current 27.5 miles per gallon average for cars could even decrease in the next decade because of several provisions in the bill, according
to some analysts...
...
The legislation's most far-reaching feature may be the repeal of the 1935 Public Utility Holding Company Act, which limits utility industry mergers. The act's repeal is a top priority for the electric power industry and the Bush administration, and if the bill passes, a wave of mergers and acquisitions could follow...
[End of Washington Post excerpts]
Repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act is a big problem. Trashing this vital regulation on utilities would worsen the conditions that enabled the recent Northeast power blackout. [6]
The bill would also roll back the Clean Air Act, allowing the air we breathe to stay polluted, in virtually any area where air pollution is a problem. This change would lead to thousands of additional asthma attacks, hospitalizations, and emergency room visits nationwide. [7]
And it would threaten our drinking water sources, by letting polluters off the hook for contaminating groundwater with pollutants like MTBE,
and by lifting Safe Drinking Water Act curbs on injecting diesel fuel and other chemicals underground during oil and gas development. [8]
These are just a few of the energy bill's worst features. For a comprehensive list of problems, based on the latest analysis, see:
http://www.moveon.org/energy-woes.pdf
We've got to urge our Senators to reject this bill. The only way to stop it is with a filibuster, the Senate's tactic of last resort to
stop especially dangerous proposals from becoming law.
Urge them to:
"Please FILIBUSTER to stop the energy bill." [2]
Please let us know you're calling, at:
http://www.moveon.org/callmade3.html?id=2127-3036131-mgd4kkda8rXNPaT35K1.RQ
Voting on this bill is expected to begin today. Please call now.
Thanks for all you do.
Sincerely,
- Carrie, Eli, James, Joan, Noah, Peter, Wes, and Zack
The MoveOn team
Monday, November 17th, 2003
P.S.: You can now see the bill at:
http://energy.senate.gov/legislation/energybill2003/energybill2003.cfm
Notes:
[1] "On October 25, 2001, 98 out of 99 voting senators hurriedly passed
the 342-page Patriot Act I - without any public debate and before most
of them had read it." http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0313/lee.php
[2] For more information on filibusters, see:
http://www.moveon.org/moveonbulletin/bulletin11.html
The New York Times has called for a filibuster on this energy bill, at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/29/opinion/29MON1.html
[3] We've posted a cost analysis by Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-CA) office:
http://www.moveon.org/energy_policy_cost_fact_sheet1.pdf
[4] As reported in the New York Times, at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/politics/16ENER.html?th
[5] For the full Washington Post story, see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46456-2003Nov15.html
[6] For more on the Public Utility Holding Company Act, see:
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/renewable_energy/page.cfm?pageID=118
[7] Source: U.S. Public Interest Research Group. See:
http://www.moveon.org/energy-factsheet-pirg.pdf
[8] For details, see:
http://www.foe.org/camps/leg/current/energyfacts.html
