Joe Barton at it again.

[flamin lib]

If you live in CD 6, go to http://followmetodc.com / for an alternative to Lil' Joe Barton in 2006.


Dallas Morning News
Barton revives controversy in energy bill
12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, October 9, 2005
Todd J. Gillman
WASHINGTON Two months ago, House energy committee chairman Joe Barton was basking in the thrill of passing a sweeping energy bill, a dream years in the making for Republicans.
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On Friday, after a month of hurricane-inspired anxiety and $3-per-gallon gasoline, Mr. Barton returned to the House floor with a new bill that struck critics as an attempted do-over by the Ennis Republican.
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(E)nough (came) off the cutting- room floor to raise eyebrows. For instance, the bill would create a fund to help oil companies cover legal fees stemming from fights over refinery permits.

The biggest red flag for environmentalists is a provision to give cities with serious smog problems several extra years before they're forced to comply with clean air requirements.
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Other provisions:

The Dallas-Fort Worth region faces a 2010 deadline to reduce smog, and Mr. Barton has tried for years to extend the deadline.

Mr. Barton dropped one of the most hotly criticized provisions, which would have precluded court challenges to a Bush administration regulation known as New Source Review.

http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/bi/gold_print.cgi


Salazar: GOP-passed bill a giveaway
October 8, 2005By Joe Hanel | Herald Denver Correspondent
The Republican energy bill that narrowly passed the U.S. House is a giveaway to oil companies at the expense of taxpayers and the environment, Rep. John Salazar (D CO) said Friday by phone. The bill aims to speed the construction of new oil refineries, but Salazar said it will not help the average driver. Congress passed a major energy bill, full of tax breaks and incentives for oil companies, in July.
"It's hard to see an honest reason for ramming through another energy bill, especially one that does nothing to lessen our dependence on foreign oil," said Salazar, a Democrat.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said the bill streamlines the maze of permitting requirements for expanding or building refineries and directs the president to single out federal land where a refinery may be built. The changes could lead to construction of a new U.S. refinery within a year, he predicted.
Barton said the need for more refineries was made obvious by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The hurricanes shut down a dozen refineries and disrupted a fifth of the country's gasoline supply.
Salazar said the bill has several negative effects:
• It rolls back air-pollution laws for refineries.
• It makes taxpayers pay oil companies if lawsuits hold up construction of new refineries.
• It strips the state attorney general of the power to prosecute price-gouging.
Salazar said that Congress should instead try to boost the use of renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.
"This bill focuses on helping the oil companies increase their profits

http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp...



It´s Getting Hot in Here
by Andrew Varnon - October 6, 2005
On Feb. 14, the Wall Street Journal published a front-page article called, "In Climate Debate, the 'Hockey Stick' Leads to a Face-Off." In that article, reporter Antonio Regalado tells a David and Goliath story of two Canadian would-be scientists who published a paper (finding) errors (the) study on global warming.
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That Wall Street Journal article caught the eye of Republican Congressman Joe Barton of Texas. In June, Barton, . . . began an investigation, firing off letters to the three scientists who authored the . . . hockey stick study, citing the Wall Street Journal article in the very first sentence. The letters were seen by many--including prominent science organizations and Republican chairman of the House Committee on Science Sherwood Boehlert--as an attempt to intimidate scientists, rather than to probe into a legitimate area of science. (Even his fellow Republicans didn't like that tactic!)
One of those three letters landed on the desk of University of Massachusetts Geosciences professor Raymond Bradley, thrusting him into the middle of a political skirmish on the science of global warming.
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Although Bradley was well aware of the political debate over global warming, he told the Advocate that the letter from Rep. Barton caught him off guard. "I was very shocked and saddened," he said. "It's sad that we've come to this state in our country."
http://valleyadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:12...