So I received this e-mail from my old friend Barbara Boxer! So the current Energy Bill under consideration will chip away and sometimes take an ax to bureaucratic processes in place to examine all sides of potential laws effecting the environment, i.e. drilling, mining. The coast of California is a pretty touchy subject, and it seems that BushCo wants to make it easier for industry to have its way. I know...SHOCKING!
Now, what is genuinely great is Sen. Boxer is working with Sen. Dole to excise some of the nasty parts out of this bill. Good for you Liddy!
Dear Friend:
A section of the pending Energy Policy Act of 2003 includes
provisions that would seriously undermine longstanding
legitimate states' rights and potentially cause significant
harm to ocean and coastal environments. I strongly oppose
these provisions, and have joined Senator Elizabeth Dole
(R-N.C.) in asking that they be removed before the Senator
considers this legislation.
In current form, this legislation would grant authority to the
Secretary of the Interior over a broad range of oil and gas
support facilities in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS),
including areas protected for many years by Presidential and
Congressional moratoria. This centralization of authority
would undermine the well-established partnership role of
coastal states by failing to require adequate consultation with
the states and the Department of Commerce, which has
jurisdiction over living marine resources.
This bill also threatens decades of successful resolution of
coastal siting issues under the Coastal Zone Management Act
(CZMA), by weakening the guidelines and states' rights. It
imposes severely restrictive and unreasonable deadlines for
decision-making by the Secretary of Commerce. These deadlines
would limit the ability of a state to collect pertinent
information as well as limit the opportunity for a state to
exercise its legal right to provide comments on the decision.
This bill would also effectively deny states the right to offer
meaningful comments on proposals regarding pipeline
construction or offshore mineral development. Under this bill,
if a state rejected a proposal, that rejection would not be
part of the record used by the Secretary of Commerce to make a final decision.
During my term in the United States Senate, I have fought
against any further oil drilling along our coast. I am pleased
to have Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) as an ally in
requesting that these harmful provisions of The Energy Policy
Act be removed from the bill before it comes to the floor for a
vote. If you have any questions regarding this or any other
federal issue, I encourage you to contact me at
[http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm] .
Sincerely,
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator
Emphasis mine.