For Immediate Release:
November 8, 2005
Contact: David
Willett, 202-675-6698
Update on Congressional Action this Week
on Several Environmental Fronts
From saving face in the wake of oil
company profits to weakening
protections for communities, Congress tackles a
number of controversial
issues with far-reaching environmental and financial
impacts for all
Americans this week. Below are brief summaries of some
of the majors
issues Sierra Club is following and available for comment
on.
1. Budget Reconciliation--Arctic Refuge/Off-Shore Oil Drilling (as
early as
Thursday)
2. Oil/Gas Hearings--Wednesday
3.
National Environmental Policy Act: (Thursday)
4. "Forest Emergency Recovery
and Research Act" (Thursday)
5. Contractor Liability/Katrina Recovery
(Tuesday)
1. Budget Reconciliation--Arctic Refuge/Off-Shore Oil Drilling
(as early as
Thursday)
Last week the Senate narrowly passed their
budget reconciliation package
with Arctic Refuge drilling. All eyes now turn
to the House, where a vote
is expected as early as Thursday on a version of
the budget that includes
draconian cuts to social service programs and
controversial provisions to
drill in the long-protected Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge and revoke the
24-year old moratorium on offshore drilling. A
recent report by the
Department of Energy estimates that even 20 years down
the road, when
Arctic Refuge oil is at or near peak production, gas prices
would only be
affected by about a penny per gallon. And in the wake of
Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita, the knee-jerk reaction by some in Congress has
been to
simply add more oil and gas rigs to our hurricane-prone waters,
furthering
our dependence on vulnerable infrastructure and ignoring real
solutions
like energy efficiency. The bill would also cut funding to
numerous
environmental, education and social program, while allowing for
provisions
that sell off our nation's public lands to mining
companies.
2. Oil/Gas Hearings--Wednesday
Both the House and
Senate plan Wednesday hearings on energy supply, with
the Senate questioning
the CEO's of major oil companies' record profits and
the House Interior
Appropriations subcommittee investigating Natural Gas
prices, supply and
demand. Top executives of ExxonMobil (just posted
$9.9
billion in third-quarter profits, up 75%), Chevron, ConocoPhillips,
BP
America Inc., and Shell Oil Company will all testify on Capitol Hill
where
just three months ago Congress passed an energy bill laden with
billions of
dollars in subsidies and tax breaks to these same companies. And
Congress
is still considering giving these companies the Arctic Refuge and
our
coasts -- taxpayers would lose some of the country’s most special places
so
that oil companies can get even richer.
On the issue of capacity, even
the American Petroleum Institute has stated
that oil refineries are not being
built because the industry, not
environmental laws, don't want them. As
a result, between 1975 and 2001,
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) received only one permit
request for a new refinery. The oil
industry’s decision to limit supply
has generated enormous profits.
Between 2001 and mid-2005, the combined
profits for the biggest five oil
refiners was $228 billion.
The solutions are the same whether addressing
Arctic and Off-Shore
drilling, or rising energy prices. Instead of
focusing on losing issues
like giveaways to the oil industry, and drilling
our coasts and the Arctic
Refuge, it is time for Congress to put forward a
real energy policy that
will lower energy bills and cut America’s
dependence on oil so we do not
repeat the mistakes of the past. prosecute
price gouging, and invest in
energy efficiency. The technology exists
today to raise fuel economy
standards to 40 miles per gallon within ten
years. Taking this step would
save 4 million barrels of oil per day--
that is more oil than the US
currently imports from the Persian Gulf and
could ever take out of the
Arctic Refuge, combined. It would also save
the average driver over $4,000
at the gas pump over the lifetime of the
vehicle. Congress should also
reinvest a portion of the
industry's windfall profits tax to help consumers
and cut America's oil
dependence. A windfall profits tax would generate
nearly $20 billion a
year that could fund tax credits for hybrid vehicles,
mass transit, energy
efficiency and consumer energy assistance. This would
help put money back in
the pockets of Americans who need it, not in the
coffers of multinational oil
companies. These real solutions will save
Americans money at the gas
pump, protect the environment, and cut the
country’s oil
dependence.
3. National Environmental Policy Act:
(Thursday)
The Congressional NEPA Task Force, which was formed by
California
Congressman Richard Pombo (R-CA) holds its final hearing in
Washington, DC
Thursday on whether to weaken the bedrock protection for safe
and healthy
communities. Sierra Club will testify at the hearing.
The 35-year old
National Environmental Policy Act, signed into law by
President Nixon,
safeguards our nation’s air water and lands by requiring
federal agencies
to provide an assessment of the environmental impact of and
alternatives to
any major federal action that could significantly affect the
quality of the
environment. However, there are some in Congress who
want to curtail
NEPA’s environmental review process and public participation
in the name of
speeding up potentially damaging projects.
The field
hearings themselves invited controversy when several of the
hearing venues
were changed at the last minute, moving from centrally
located population
centers to more isolated communities, in some cases even
changing from
weekend to weekday schedules. In some cases proponents of
NEPA were
denied an opportunity to offer testimony. For example,
the
third hearing on July 23rd intended to cover the role of NEPA in
the
southern states, was moved from Houston, Texas (population 1,953,000)
to
the small east Texas town of Nacogdoches (population 30,000). Eight
of the
10 witnesses represented mining and timber extractive
industries. Local
Sierra Club members asked to testify at the hearing
but were turned down
4. "Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act"
(Thursday)
The House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health also holds
a hearing
Thursday on Representative Greg Walden's (R-OR) logging bill (H.R.
4200)
that goes even further than President Bush's Healthy Forests Initiative
in
its disregard for important protections for clean drinking water
and
wildlife, and elimination of meaningful environmental analysis and
public
involvement required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
This
legislation is a gross example of misplaced priorities. We should
be
protecting homes and communities at risk from fires, not diverting
scarce
resources to damaging logging activities. Scientific research
has shown
that logging dead or dying trees damages streams, increases fire
risk,
destroys wildlife habitat and wastes taxpayer dollars.
Congress
has given the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management all of
the
authority it needs to address natural disasters and the Administration
has
granted itself several waivers from environmental analysis under NEPA
to
complete legitimate forest rehabilitation and recovery after natural
events.
In fact, the forest clean-up from Hurricane Katrina -- of one of
the greatest
natural disasters in US history -- is being managed entirely
within the
confines of current forest management laws.
5. Contractor
Liability/Katrina Recovery (Tuesday)
The Senate Subcommittee on Superfund
and Waste Management holds a hearing
today (Tuesday) on a bill that allows
government-paid contractors in
national disasters unprecedented immunity from
environmental citizens suits
and in many cases even liability for harm that
they cause through
negligence. Senate bill 1761 would apply to the
Katrina disaster and any
future national disasters in which federal aid costs
more than $15 billion.
A group of unions, community and environmental
organizations sent a letter
to Congress urging that relief, recovery, and
rebuilding assistance in the
Gulf Coast must make clean air and water for the
people of the region a
priority. Instead, the residents of the Gulf Coast who
have already been
victimized by the terrific force of these hurricanes will
be victimized
again by this bill, which would leave them without a remedy
against
government contractors that cause irreparable harm to their air and
water.
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