: Arctic Lobbying Team
Subject: [ak_lobby] NYT Editorial: "A Waste
of Energy"
Sent to JETPAC: (AK
The New York Times
June 26, 2006
As the
nickel-and-dime agenda suggests, "energy week," which may not last even five
days, is a joke. There is one bill calling for further research into hybrid
cars, another subsidizing solar demonstration projects, another encouraging more
efficient tires. All are useful, all terribly modest given overall needs. And
then there's our personal favorite for the fox-in-the-henhouse award, a proposal
to give $10 million to the automobile and oil industries to teach the public how
to save gasoline.
The only
big item is a bill from Representative Richard Pombo, the California Republican,
that would end a longstanding federal moratorium on oil and gas drilling on the
Outer Continental Shelf, subject to state approval. While perhaps three-quarters
of known coastal oil and gas reserves are already open for drilling, mainly in
the Gulf of Mexico, and while the environmental problems of further drilling are
obvious, Mr. Pombo's proposal would be worth entertaining if it were linked,
say, to a serious effort to reduce demand by sharply raising fuel economy
standards.
But the
House is dominated by people who believe that a country that consumes
one-quarter of the world's oil while possessing 3 percent of the world's
reserves can somehow drill its way to energy independence. And that means that
the worthy proposals that do exist to increase conservation and efficiency won't
get the time of day.
If there is
any serious conservation to be had this year on energy, it is likely to take
place in the Senate, which has before it two similar, comprehensive bills aimed
at reducing oil dependency and, in the bargain, sharply reducing greenhouse gas
emissions. These bills would require that oil consumption be cut by 50 percent
over the next quarter-century and would provide a broad array of tools to get
there — loans, direct subsidies, tax breaks and other incentives to encourage
the production of fuel-efficient cars, for instance, as well as alternatives to
gasoline like cellulosic ethanol.
Just
getting a start on one of these big bills would be a plus. House members have
introduced 267 energy-related bills this year, and senators have introduced 210.
Everyone wants to be seen to be doing something. What those numbers really add
up to is close to 477 excuses to do next to nothing.
*~~~~~~~~~~~*
Peter A. Rafle,
Jr
Senior Director, Advocacy
Communications
The Wilderness
Society
1615 M St.
NW
(202)
429-2642
(202) 431-2807
cell