URGENT: Action needed on Energy Bill! Please call our senators NOW! "POLLUTER PARADISE" ENERGY BILL UP FOR VOTE IN SENATE TOMORROW! Previously we reported how the U.S. Senate was preparing for a vote in May on bill number S.2095 - the so-called "slimmed down" version of last year's "polluter paradise" energy bill. Well there's been a very dramatic and unexpected change and it appears the energy bill is headed for a vote by the full U.S. Senate tomorrow, Thursday April 29th! While the timing has changed, the bill has not. As currently written, S.2095 has far-reaching environmental implications that will harm birds, wildlife, and their habitat throughout the United States by subsidizing polluting industries and giving tax breaks and other incentives for oil and gas drilling in America's last pristine wild areas. With a vote scheduled for as early as tomorrow afternoon, we need your help to encourage our two U.S. Senators to oppose S.2095 or any similar version thereof! As there is no time for e-mails or letters, your two 15-second phone calls could make all the difference! So please call our Senators tonight and tomorrow morning and urge them to oppose S.2095! Senator Charles Grassley (202) 224-3744 Senator Tom Harkin (202) 224-3254 Energy Bill, Bad as Ever, Roars Back to Life Weeks of dormancy have done nothing to improve the giant energy bill that has been before the U.S. Senate for months. It is back and no less dangerous than it ever was. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) moved yesterday to attach his so-called energy bill lite (S. 2095) to an unrelated piece of legislation pending on the Senate floor: S. 150, the internet tax bill. Like earlier versions, Domenici's amendment contains the language that would make oil and gas development the dominant use of our western public lands. The Senate rules under which Sen. Domenici offered the amendment permit no amendments to it. The only hope is to rally enough senators to vote it down. Please Call Your Senator Today or Thursday! Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 The message to senators is very simple: please ask them to vote against the Domenici amendment to S. 150. The Domenici energy bill would accelerate the pace of energy development that is already ravaging some of our most spectacular western landscapes and richest wildlife habitats. And it would simultaneously exempt that activity from some of our most important environmental statutes and limit analysis of other impacts of energy development. As we've reported to WildAlert subscribers before, the bill would do little, if anything, to foster energy conservation. Among other things, the Domenici bill, now in the form of an amendment, would: - Prohibit drilling fluids from being considered drinking water pollutants under the Safe Drinking Water Act and exempt oil and gas activities, including construction of drill pads, from the Clean Water Act; - Allow the Interior Secretary to designate utility and pipeline corridors across public lands without seeking public input through a land use planning process; - Give applicants for federal drilling permits up to two years to comply with application requirements, but give the Bureau of Land Management only a few days to approve drilling permit applications; - Establish an Office of Federal Project Coordination within the White House intended to expedite the permitting and completion of energy projects on federal lands, and to override environmental safeguards; - Require the United States Geological Survey to identify various restrictions and impediments to the development of federal oil and gas deposits. These would include policies and regulations designed to protect fish and wildlife, wild lands, and cultural and historical values on the public lands; - Force taxpayers to subsidize oil and gas lessees, by foregoing royalties, for their costs of complying with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA); - Put the Department of Energy, an agency with no experience or expertise in public land management, in charge of implementing an Executive Order which requires federal land management agencies, before taking any action to determine whether such actions would have a significant adverse effect on energy development; - Establish a perpetual pilot program for expediting the approval of energy projects in the Rocky Mountain region; - Give the Secretary of Energy unprecedented authority to permit electric power lines across federal public lands and to override federal agency objections to siting decisions, allowing transmission lines to be built across protected areas such as National Monuments and National Conservation Areas; - Encourage oil and gas development under Padre Island National Seashore, even though it's a National Park; and, - Waive existing NEPA environmental review and public participation process for all types of energy development projects on Indian lands in favor of an unspecified new process. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Senate Contact Information: You can phone your senators' offices through the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. Talking points: When the Senate considers the Domenici amendment to S. 150, the internet tax bill, I strongly urge you to vote against it. Sen. Domenici's amendment contains a host of provisions that will perpetuate America?s dependence on 19th Century energy technologies such as coal, oil and natural gas, rather than move us toward a clean energy future for the 21st Century. I am especially concerned about provisions in the bill that will make oil and gas development the dominant use of our western public lands and will exempt the oil and gas industry from key provisions of the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. Under Senate rules, this multitude of special-interest provisions cannot be amended out of Sen. Domenici's fatally flawed proposal. I urge you to do everything you can to keep the Domenici amendment out of the internet tax bill. Thank you for your consideration. 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