|
Washington, D.C -- Today Congressman David Wu called the Republican House Energy bill anti-taxpayer, anti-environment and anti-consumer. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (H.R. 6) is full of provisions for special interests and benefits for energy companies. Through its tax breaks, authorizations and direct spending, the bill would provide more than $22 billion to the oil, gas, and other energy industries. Fully 93% of the Act's tax breaks would go to traditional energy sources such as oil, natural gas, nuclear power and electricity transmission. The bill only includes tax incentives of less than seven percent for renewable energy and conservation.
"The Energy Bill put forward by the Administration is nothing more than a give-away program for big oil and the energy industry," said Congressman David Wu. "This administration had presented us an energy bill that provides no solutions to problems we are facing -- gas prices are rising; air pollution is contributing to record levels asthma and other lung diseases, and we are destroying some of our last remaining pristine wilderness."
H.R. 6 would open up, for the first time, the pristine coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas drilling. Opening the Arctic Refuge would have no significant effect on our dependence on foreign oil. The Arctic Refuge is one of the last, wild, untouched places left in the United States.
Another of the bill’s key anti-environment provisions significantly weakens the Clean Air Act. This provision exempts states from having to clean up their dirty air if some of their pollution comes from other heavily polluted areas. Under this provision, these “downwind” states would not have to meet clean air standards until after the “upwind” areas had been cleaned up. This provision serves as an invitation for local communities that have not met air quality standards to use the extra time to put off reducing emissions from sources inside their own borders.
### |
