Bill Shuster has spent the last couple of days being driven around the 9th District talking up his "Energy Independence act". Flashy title aside, HR 6421 is quite probably deader than fried chicken. The Bill was introduced to the floor of Congress on June 29th without a single co-sponsor. That means that no one in Congress, not even any republicans, would attach their name to it. The last energy-related bill that got out of Committee had some 198 co-sponsors.
As is standard practice, HR 6421 was referred to six different Congressional Committees; Natural resources, Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, Science and Technology, Transportation and Infrastructure and House rules. Any one of these committees can kill this bill for any reason, but that’s not why this bill is deader than Julius Caesar.
This Bill is dead on arrival for a number of reasons.
First of all, if the Congress was going to pass one "energy bill", out of the 889 energy related bills that have been introduced to the House in the past year, it is much more likely that will be a Democratic sponsored or, at the very least, a bi-partisan sponsored bill, rather than a re-hash of Bush Administration/Oil Industry policy. If Bill Shuster were actually interested in lowering your gas prices wouldn’t he have swallowed a little pride and tried to work with Congressional Democrats, something he has NEVER done, on a bill that might actually pass.
Secondly, someone who has been in and around Congress as long as Bill Shuster has should know better. If he actually thinks that this bill will do anything he is either deluded to the point of being a danger to himself and others, or utterly and completely dim-witted and in desperate need of a less stressful job.
Finally, if either of the former two conditions do not apply, then the only conclusion that one can come to is that HR6421 is nothing more than a waste of the taxpayers time and money, and a publicity stunt intended to project the illusion that Bill Shuster has done more with his time in congress than name a few post offices.
The PA09th, like a lot of red districts, needs leadership, not the grandstanding politics of yesteryear. Tony Barr's energy plan offers exactly that, leadership where America and the PA09th need it most, energy.
Rather than cow-tow to the Saudis and the Oil Companies, Tony Barr is working for working people, offering real solutions for our energy problems. Tony Barr’s energy policy can be read on his campaign website at tonybarr2008.com.
http://tonybarr2008.com/...
Tony’s ideas for energy include but are not limited to the following:
a) Offering no-cost loans to homeowners to update windows, doors, and insulation
b) institute "feebates" to make the purchase of high mileage vehicles more affordable
c) developing a rural mass transportation system
http://tonybarr2008.com
http://www.actblue.com/...