A Shortage of Energy (NYT)

[radfringe]

A Shortage of Energy
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/18/opinion/18TUE1.html
Published: November 18, 2003


President Bush seems to have been the recipient of poor intelligence again. Last weekend, he claimed that the energy bill approved by Republican leaders would make the country "more secure." Senator John McCain's description of the bill as a "leave no lobbyist behind" barrel of pork for selected industries and campaign contributors was closer to the truth. So was Senator Robert Byrd's unsparing judgment that the bill would "do about as much to improve the nation's energy security as the administration's invasion of Iraq has done to stem the tide of global terrorism."

One can only hope for a similar show of honesty from 39 of their Senate colleagues, 41 being the minimum needed to sustain a filibuster and launch this dreadful bill into the legislative netherworld where it belongs. At that point Congress can start again and give the country an energy strategy worthy of the problems it faces, oil dependency being one, and global warming another.

---snip---

The oil and gas companies were particularly well rewarded — hardly surprising in a bill that had its genesis partly in Vice President Dick Cheney's secret task force. Though they did not win permission to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, they got a lot of other things, not only tax breaks but also exemptions from the Clean Water Act, protection against lawsuits for fouling underground water and an accelerated process for leasing and drilling in sensitive areas at the expense of environmental reviews and public participation. Meanwhile, the bill imposes new reliability standards on major electricity producers, but it is not clear whether it would encourage new and badly needed investment in the power grid.