Per the Environmental News Service, in the Only Environmental Bill in The First 100 Hours Up for Vote
...with 199 cosponsors, H.R.6 will shift roughly $13 billion in oil industry subsidies toward renewable energy and energy efficiency. The House is scheduled to vote on H.R. 6 on thursday, January 18.
"In a 180 degree shift from energy policies that line the pockets of polluting industries, the introduction of H.R. 6 is clear signal that Congress is ready to start solving our energy problems," said Kate Johnson of U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups.
Specifically, the measure ensures oil companies that were awarded the 1998 and 1999 leases for drilling paid their fair share in royalties. It also closes loopholes and ends giveaways in the tax code for Big Oil, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says on her website.
The bill creates a Strategic Renewable Energy Reserve to invest in clean, renewable energy resources, promoting new emerging technologies, developing greater efficiency and improving energy conservation.
Over the last several years, profits and subsidies for Big Oil have climbed, as has our dependence on foreign oil, Pelosi says. In 2006, the big five oil companies made $97 billion - nearly five times their profits in 2002. Gas prices have topped $3 per gallon at the pump.
This week is the time to act. Call the House Switchboard and leave a message for your rep (202) 225-3121
The United States now has a record dependence on foreign oil, which has climbed to 65 percent, and the country is sending about $800 million per day to the Middle East and other oil producing countries.
Reducing our dependence on foreign oil is critical to bolstering our national security and creating good-paying new jobs.
Even if your rep doesn't get global warming: Say its good for national security...
American farms abound with crops that can be used to fuel our cars and trucks - from corn to soybeans to switchgrass," Pelosi points out. In 2005, the ethanol industry supported the creation of more than 150,000 jobs in all sectors of the U.S. economy, boosting U.S. household income by $5.7 billion, according to a report for the Renewable Fuels Association.
Even if your rep doesn't get global warming: Say its good for the economy...
Pelosi says that the President's current budget funds renewable energy and energy efficiency at below the 2001 level, in real terms, and provides nearly 50 percent less for research on renewable energy than was promised in the energy law.
And we can change that level now...Bush may only be able to leave a legacy by switching policy on global warming, and not vetoing this. There is some evidence that his new environmentally aware Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson not only strongly supports
...global warming regulation. Paulson transplanted TNC's pro-Kyoto position into Goldman Sachs, an investment bank with no known expertise in climate science. Now Goldman Sachs not only supports greenhouse gas regulation, but has said it will lobby for such policies. No doubt this will be much easier, with Paulson as Treasury secretary.
...but Paulson may have had some effect on Bush global warming policy, or what the heck is this: legislation to protect, maintain, and restore the sustainability and productivity of ocean ecosystems coming from Bush?
...there is broad bipartisan support for ending the addiction to oil by investing in clean renewable fuels, Pelosi says, quoting an Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll taken last August that found 52 percent of those surveyed said the U.S. government should invest in alternative energy sources to reduce dependence on foreign oil.
And of course that 52 percent would be much higher if it were not for Exxon having funded companiesthroughout the 90's to spread lies about global warming...but we save our species with the majority we have, not the majority we might wish we had...
Lets be heard this week!