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House Passes Catastrophic Energy Bill Sierra Club Urges Senate to Reject the Bill Washington, DC: The Sierra Club today strongly condemned the House of Representatives for passing an energy bill that constitutes one of the worst disasters for the environment, public health and consumers in years. The Sierra Club also called on the Senate to reject this destructive bill--including using a filibuster if necessary--in order to protect America's clean air, clean water, and natural heritage. "The Bush Administration and polluters might be sipping champagne today, but the public is being forced to swallow more pollution in their drinking water, weaker environmental and consumer protections, dirtier air, and despoiled public lands," said Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. Hatched three years ago in the backroom meetings of the Bush/Cheney Energy Task Force, this energy bill has been an act of secrecy from start to finish. Today, the House passed a 1000+ page bill that was just released publicly for the first time on Saturday. Democrats were given almost no time to examine the myriad disastrous provisions of the bill before having to vote on it. "Make no mistake; this bill will benefit the worst polluting industries in America," said Pope. "Instead of taking responsible steps forward, this bill will take us backwards and put our communities at risk. The majority of Americans don't want this bill. They don't want to breathe dirtier air, they don't want to drink polluted water, and they don't want their precious natural heritage sold out to the oil and gas industry." Some of the worst provisions of the bill include: * Making oil and gas drilling the dominant use of our public lands. * Weakening the Clean Air Act and making it easier for polluters to dirty our air for longer. * Exempting damaging oil and gas activities from the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts. * Letting MTBE (a gasoline additive known to pollute drinking water) manufacturers off the hook for cleaning up their own messes, and saddling local communities with a $29 billion cleanup cost. * Giving billions of dollars to the polluting coal and nuclear industries instead of focusing more resources on cleaner renewable energy like wind and solar power. Energy policy doesn't have to look like this. There is a better way. By using innovative 21st century clean energy technologies, we can clean up our environment; cut the country's dangerous dependence on oil; increase our use of clean, renewable energy; and prevent future blackouts. But instead of taking these smart choices forward, this bill takes us backwards and opens up an entirely new attack on our environment and public health. Because there is now no way to fix this bill, the Sierra Club urges the Senate to do everything in its power, including a filibuster if necessary, to reject the bill. Responsible leaders in the Senate should stand up and soundly reject this disastrous energy bill. ### |
