Earth Day now has new significance, since the US House of Representatives voted to give "$8.1 billion in tax breaks over 10 years, most of it going to promote coal, nuclear, oil and natural gas energy industries."
Americans are increasingly nervous about terrorism, the stock market, homosexuality, drugs, gas prices, and surprisingly, not our climate in crisis. We've become the fattest, laziest, richest people in history, with an infinite capacity for innovation and creativity and foresight, yet can't be be bothered to recycle, let alone work on conservation, by driving less, or carpooling, or buying more fuel efficient vehicles, or riding the bus, or buying a hybrid vehicle ...
And why aren't we doing our part to avoid ecological armageddon? Because, let's face it, we're a bunch of lazy fuckers. The House of Representatives merely formalized our laziness today by affirming our love of cheap oil.
So what if drilling in Alaska endangers a few caribou, which by the way it won't, so says Republican Rep. Dick Pombo.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who offered the ANWR amendment, noted that the bill does nothing to improve the fuel economy of automobiles, which he said use 70 percent of the country's oil, and that it was wrong "to then turn to the wilderness areas and say we need energy."
An attempt to require automakers to increase fuel economy to a fleet average of 33 miles per gallon over the next decade was defeated 254-177.
Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., a co-sponsor of the auto fuel economy proposal, said it would have reduced oil use by 2 million barrels a day — more than could be taken from ANWR — by 2020. He described as "a bunch of nonsense" claims by opponents that the increased fuel economy would cost the auto industry jobs, force consumers to buy smaller cars and reduce automobile safety.
"We don't need to micromanage our auto manufactures," countered Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.
Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., acknowledged that ANWR was "a very unique place" that deserves protection but argued that its oil can be developed using modern drilling techniques without harming the environment and wildlife.
"We don't have to choose between providing the energy resources ... and protecting our environment," he said.
President Bush on Wednesday urged Congress to give him an energy bill by summer, including a go-ahead for oil exploration in the Alaska refuge. He said the oil can be recovered "with almost no impact on land and local wildlife" and ANWR's production would amount to nearly half the oil the U.S. now gets from Venezuela.
Speaking to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Bush said swift action on energy by Congress — where a succession of energy bills have languished for four years — would "send an important signal" that the country "is serious about solving America's energy problems."
Bush said he wished he "could wave a magic wand and lower gas prices tomorrow" but said the nation's energy problems took years to develop and are "not going to be solved overnight."
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California accused Bush of trying to exploit people's anxiety over high gas prices to gain support for a bill that she said "was written by energy lobbyists for the benefit of the energy industry." She said it would neither lower energy prices nor curtail America's growing reliance on oil imports.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the legislation's floor leader, called the bill balanced and said if it becomes law it will provide for a more diversified array of domestic energy sources from coal, oil and gas to nuclear and renewable such energy from biomass, ethanol and wind.
"Midterm and long term, if the bill becomes law, we'll see prices stabilized," Barton said at a news conference with Majority Leader Tom DeLay, also of Texas, who accused Democrats of being "obstructionists."
"There are those that do not want a solution, they just want the bill to fail," DeLay said.
The House bill also would make it easier to build liquefied natural gas import terminals, even if states or local communities oppose the project, and require refiners to use more corn-based ethanol in gasoline.
It also would extend daylight-saving time by two months to reduce energy use and protect makers of the gasoline additive MTBE from product liability lawsuits stemming to the chemical's contamination of drinking water.
The bill gives MTBE makers "safe harbor" and will leave communities and water districts with billions of dollars in cleanup costs, said Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif. It also provides $2 billion to help MTBE makers, including major oil companies and refiners, to shift away from MTBE production as the additive is phased out.
