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Every so often we get a stark, up-to-the-minute reminder of just how bad the influence of Big Money in government really is.
Since 2003, oil and utility companies have spent over $367 million dollars in lobbying and campaign contributions to push an energy bill that is anti-taxpayer, anti-environment and anti-consumer.
Click on the Read More link below to reaad the rest of Bernie's commentary.
Every so often we get a stark, up-to-the-minute reminder of just how bad the influence of Big Money in government really is.
Since 2003, oil and utility companies have spent over $367 million dollars in lobbying and campaign contributions to push an energy bill that is anti-taxpayer, anti-environment and anti-consumer.
Their "investment" has paid off. Last week, Congress passed the bill and President Bush, a strong ally of the energy companies, has signed it into law.
In the midst of a major energy crisis this legislation will do everything it can to pad the bottom line of the already hugely profitable oil companies and as little as possible to move this country into the new energy direction that our times demand.
Among other outrages, this bill will provide oil, coal and nuclear power corporations with about $9 billion dollars in taxpayer subsidies over the next 10 years. Also, mysteriously tucked away in the bowels of this bill at the very end of the legislative process is another provision that contains a $1.5 billion giveaway to the Texas Energy Center. Where is that located? In Tom DeLay's home district.
Sensible, forward-thinking energy legislation would move our country in a fundamentally new direction. It would break our dependency on fossil fuels and foreign oil, make us far more energy-efficient, move us toward safe and sustainable energy and make up for lost time in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
In order to protect Vermont's environment and the health of our people, it would reduce emissions from Midwest coal-burning power plants that are polluting the air and water in our state.
Tragically, the newly passed energy bill does none of the above.
It is anti-taxpayer because it provides corporate welfare to companies that don't need it. At a time when oil giants like ExxonMobil and Shell are earning billions in record-breaking profits, the oil and gas industry will receive $4 billion over 10 years in tax breaks and subsidies.
The coal industry receives $3 billion during that same period while the nuclear power industry gets another $4 billion.
It is anti-environment because it refuses to even acknowledge the threat of global warming, let alone take action on it.
Instead, while scientists throughout the world are increasingly alarmed about the earth's rising temperature, this bill merely calls for yet more studies and research on the issue.
It is anti-consumer because it does nothing to lower the outrageously high prices Americans are now paying at the gas pump, or the home heating prices they will be paying next winter.
It also does away with the Public Utility Holding Company Act, our primary federal law to protect consumers from market manipulation, fraud, and abuse in the electricity sector. This 70-year old consumer and investor protection statute will be completely abolished within six months.
The inevitable result will be huge holding companies owning unregulated utility monopolies without any effective state regulation.
Sure, this bill has a few provisions targeted to improve energy efficiency, conservation and renewable energy sources. It includes a new residential tax credit for the installation of solar panels. It extends the production tax credit for the installation of renewable energy facilities for two more years (a five-year extension would have provided the needed stability to foster long-term investment). And it creates a new tax credit for clean renewable energy bonds.
But given the enormously serious energy crises we now face, these few measures go nowhere near far enough.
At a time when traditional energy companies are awash in huge profits and are giving their CEOs record-setting compensation (the median oil and gas executives' compensation in 2004 was about $16.5 million), Congress should not be showering them with even more taxpayer money. Instead, it should be drastically reducing federal support for polluting energy sources while dramatically increasing funding for clean and renewable energy sources — such as wind, solar, biomass and other promising technologies.
This is what Vermont needs, and this is what America needs.
It may be old news that Big Money corrupts our legislative process. But the fact that it is nothing new hardly softens the blow. We needed a bill that set America on a new course toward a clean and secure energy future and made us an international leader in the fight to save our global environment.
Instead, under the Dick Cheney-Tom DeLay Republican energy team, we got yet another bill bought and paid for by the special, Big Money interests in Washington.
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