My letter to the editor attacking the energy bill appeared in today's Sioux City Journal. I believe a few good paragraphs are missing from the end of my letter. Jim Enron, friends have way with American citizens SIOUX CITY -- A couple years ago, the energy-producing elite got together with Dick Cheney behind closed doors and crafted a national energy policy that reduced their liabilities and enlarged their subsidies. NO ONE ELSE WAS INVITED. This week the Senate and House will deliver this closed-door wish list (early Christmas gift) to Enron and friends. Excluded from the table were those asking for better fuel economy for our vehicles, those asking for conservation of energy, those wanting us to abide by laws that protected our water, air and land. Look at the overly industrialized North slope of Alaska and picture what these energy companies are going to do to the last pristine wilderness on the continent, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Unless Sens. Grassley and Harkin and our representatives vote against this bill, the American public will find itself at the mercy of corporations not willing to pay the price of a nuclear energy disaster, not willing to protect our groundwater resources as they mine for methane, not willing to reduce America's appetite for oil in a world where war is used to control oil resources. The energy bill moving out of committee (H.R.6) is a regressive package of subsidies to the energy industry and an affront to consumers and environmental protection. The bill grants the power of eminent domain to the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allowing it to seize private land to construct transmission lines, virtually eliminating local and state authority. -- Dr. Jim Redmond, conservation chair, Northwest Iowa Sierra Club Jim Redmond Briar Cliff University [log in to unmask] 3303 Rebecca St. Sioux City IA 51104 712-279-5544 712-258-8303 home -----Original Message----- From: Jane Clark [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, November 14, 2003 10:34 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Energy Bill and the Townsend Project, More Yesterday's Des Moines Register State Government Update: Iowa Child: Grassley spurns proposed deal that cuts help for Iowa project By Register Staff Report 11/13/2003 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---- ---- WHAT'S NEW: Republican leaders in the U.S. House Wednesday made a counteroffer on the energy bill to Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Ia., that would include elimination of special financing for the Iowa Child project, a proposed indoor rain forest near Coralville. House Republicans say they are willing to accept four other entertainment and commercial complexes in other parts of the country that would get special treatment, but not the Iowa project. Grassley has refused the offer, aides said. WHY IT MATTERS: Republicans in the House contend the $225 million, nonprofit Iowa Child project is pork-barrel spending that's holding up approval of a compromise on a bill that's supposed to promote development of energy and improve the nation's electrical grid. Grassley says building the project and others with tax-exempt financing is an investment in the future. Plus, he says the Iowa project is "kind of like a pimple on an elephant compared to all the other issues we've got" dividing lawmakers in the legislation. HOW IT HAPPENED: The senator said in a conference call with Iowa reporters that Iowans involved with the Iowa Child project brought lobbyists for the other projects to initial meetings with Grassley. "There was kind of a team," said Grassley, but the other projects then dropped their support for the Iowa Child project. "I think it just shows you how some lobbying groups work in this town, to get an entree to the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee through an Iowa interest, and then they don't hold up their end of the bargain." WHAT'S NEXT: House and Senate leaders will continue negotiations on the energy bill. The talks probably will go on for a while because the House is in recess and can't vote on it until next week. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask]