House Republicans hosted a press conference on the west steps of the Capitol Building today to tout their new energy legislation, the "American Energy Act" [PDF]. But the 50 caucus members at the gathering were outnumbered by at least 100 protesters, who booed loudly at their calls to open up protected areas for more oil and gas drilling.
As storm clouds gathered over head and members dripped sweat in the balmy D.C. heat, GOP leadership unveiled a bill that they say represents an "all of the above" energy strategy. On the House GOP website, the legislation's goals are summarized as "increase production, innovate clean & reliable energy, increase supply, and encourage efficiency."
More specifically, the bill would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration and lift the moratoriums on drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf and on finalizing regulations for oil-shale development. Some of the revenue from new oil and gas leases would go to create a "Renewable and Alternative Energy Trust Fund," with "alternative" being defined broadly enough to encompass oil shale, "clean coal," and tar sands, in addition to the expected solar, wind, biomass, and the like.
The American Energy Act would permanently extend the production tax credits for wind, solar, and hydrogen (the House voted to extend the credits in May, but the extension got bogged down in the Senate in June). The bill would also create and extend tax incentives for fuel-efficient vehicles, homes, and businesses. It calls for a "cash prize" program to encourage the development of new energy technologies, to be awarded by the secretary of energy. This would include a $500 million prize to "the first automobile manufacturer incorporated in the United States to manufacture and sell in the United States 50,000 midsized sedan automobiles which operate on gasoline and can travel 100 miles per gallon."
House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) and the bill's other 83 cosponsors want a vote on their legislation before the August recess. "The only thing that stands between us and this bill passing is Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat-controlled Congress," Boehner told the crowd. "Let's let Congress vote up or down on whether they think we ought to have more American-made energy."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put out a statement today saying the new bill "largely rehashes failed ideas on domestic drilling." She said that Democrats are planning a vote tomorrow on a bill that would release some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in hopes of quickly driving down oil prices.
At the press conference on the Capitol steps, folks from the National Wildlife Federation, Campus Progress, Friends of the Earth, U.S. PIRG, Environment America, The Wilderness Society, and other green groups were out in force, bearing signs that read "Save Our Shores" and "Clean Energy Now!" Others went directly after the premise that drilling would lower oil prices -- the main point the Republicans were trying to convey at the gathering -- with signs saying "Drill more: Useless." They hoped to send the message that investment in renewables shouldn't be contingent on more drilling, and that the U.S. needs to wean itself from oil. "More drugs do not help beat the addiction," said a press release from Defenders of Wildlife.
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Comments
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Tasermons Partner Posted 11:40 am
23 Jul 2008
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Russ Posted 6:10 pm
23 Jul 2008
We're only going to see more and more of this from the fossil fuel dead-enders.
The bill is of course about drilling, drilling, and drilling. It's not about increasing oil supply or lowering gasoline prices, both of which Bush's own DOE concedes will not happen. It's only about drilling for profit, straight plunder for already super-rich pirates.
As for "the expected" solar and wind, efficiency and the like, these are only mentioned as a fig leaf, to try to camouflage the bill's real intent. This intent is clear in the Orwellian melding of the terms "renewable" and "alternative" which allows them to include tar sands, filthy coal (coal will ALWAYS be filthy - CCS doesn't mitigate the nightmare of MTR), and oil shale under this rubric.
So here's the plan: destroy ANWAR and the continental shelf, take the royalties and hand them back to Big Oil and Big Coal to help subsidize the shale experiment and the CCS scam. (Of course the money in this "Trust Fund", if it ever existed at all, would be channelled to the fossil fuel "alternatives", while the true renewables would get crumbs. Never forget that this is a zero-sum game, and the winner is dictated by whoever holds the power.)
Could this bill or a similar one pass? If the stupid voters keep trending the way polls are saying, apparently believing the right's lies about drilling our way to lower gas prices (and implicitly believing, as a result of societal brainwashing, that the cheap gas car culture is the only way things can be, the way things should be, indeed that this state of things in their American birthright), and if the Democrats revert to their normal craven ways, then we are indeed likely to see policies like this. Perhaps even "bipartisan".
The saturnalia must swirl to the bitter end; the bonfire must burn all night and die only with the blizzard dawn. We burned all the firewood, we've burned almost all the furniture; all that's left are the precious paintings, and now they too must go into the flames.
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DrillNow Posted 12:34 am
24 Jul 2008
You are self righteous, ignorant, confused dolts! And you will not print this.
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treestump Posted 12:55 am
24 Jul 2008
flying under the radar
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TheGreenMiles Posted 1:26 am
24 Jul 2008
Join the discussion on global warming, recycling, and organic beer at The Green Miles!
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treestump Posted 2:18 am
24 Jul 2008
flying under the radar
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TheGreenMiles Posted 3:34 am
24 Jul 2008
A) It was a joke.
B) If you're going to accuse someone of not knowing how to spell, you might learn the proper usage of your/you're.
Join the discussion on global warming, recycling, and organic beer at The Green Miles!
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treestump Posted 5:47 am
24 Jul 2008
flying under the radar
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Tasermons Partner Posted 9:45 am
24 Jul 2008
Given the amount of obesity in this country, that's what we should've been doin' a long time ago, baka!
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Hemified Posted 11:38 am
24 Jul 2008
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David Roberts Posted 11:53 am
24 Jul 2008
grist.org
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Hemified Posted 12:23 pm
24 Jul 2008
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kenshin Posted 2:38 pm
27 Jul 2008
apartment landlords complain how non-efficient appliances and ever increasing utilities, heat, ac, etc, are squeezing their renters to the point where they can't pay rent.
america grows so much surplus food, it aint' funny. we export a ton of it. we give it away.
the cost of food going up has nothing to do with demand, it has to do with THE PRICE OF OIL BEING OVER $150 A BARREL. that cost affects the manufacture, production, and transportation of food, and that's all going up cuz that's defendant on oil.
why don't you go and talk to the folks at the GMA about the current research on cellulosic biofuels, like alfalfa and switchgrass. read Gary Hirshbergs' book, Stirring it Up, to find out more ways in which businesses, esp food manufacturers, can SAVE SAVE SAVE money by investing in renewable fuels?
as Jeff Swartz, founder of Timberland, once said, "What idiot would leave costs on the table?" it's way more than just tree-hugging...it's profits.
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kenshin Posted 2:42 pm
27 Jul 2008
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kenshin Posted 2:46 pm
27 Jul 2008
the look of fear in the republican's eyes, when he said "it looks like it's starting to rain out here." it was almost as if they were worried about being struck by lightning, for all the lies they just told!!!
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