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Owens Comments on Pro-Industry Energy Bill

BROOKLYN, NY. The Energy Bill (HR 6) sent by the House to the Senate on March 26, 2005 "is simply a thank-you note to oil, gas and coal industries, electrical companies, and dozens of other corporations that pour money over Republicans in Congress. The bill is blatantly anti-environmental, anti-taxpayer, anti-consumer,” Owens said.

The Republican Energy bill was based on the secretive pro-industry Cheney Energy Task Force Report repeals the Public Utility Company Act of 1935 that protects consumers by regulating the utility industry.

The bill weakens the Clean Air Act’s pollution standards, blocks legal efforts to make oil companies pay for the cleanup of polluted water supplies, provides $8 billion in tax breaks to oil companies, allows drilling in the Alaska Nation Wildlife Refuge, provides liability protection for MTBE (a powerful pollutant) producers, weakens hydroelectric licensing rules, allows more drilling on more public lands at taxpayer expense and lessens environmental protections. Further, it provides nothing to promote renewable energy sources that could help lead Americans away from its increased dependency on foreign oil while it shields the manufacturers of a dangerous gasoline additive from lawsuits.

The focus of the bill is on drilling not conservation and developing alternative energy resources. It gives $8 billion in tax breaks to coal, oil and gas companies at the expense of working families. And the bill will do nothing to lower the gas prices at the pumps across America.

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