Anna's Soapbox

from the National Resources Defense Council:

Urgent: Tell your senators to reject the dangerous energy bill!

****UPDATE, 21 Nov.: WE SPOKE OUT, AND IT WORKED!!!! For now, at least, the Senate has rejected Bush's energy bill.****

After nearly three months of secret negotiations that shut out Democratic participation and public scrutiny, the Republican leaders of the energy conference committee released the final version of the energy bill this past Saturday. Despite the absence of Arctic Refuge drilling provisions, this is NOT an acceptable energy bill: it would hand billions of dollars to the polluting oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries while exempting them from environmental laws that protect drinking water, clean air and public lands.

Among the most damaging provisions in the final bill is a liability waiver for producers of the toxic gasoline additive MTBE. The waiver would shield producers from being held responsible for the cost of cleaning up drinking water contaminated with MTBE, even though the industry knew the chemical would pollute groundwater. The few positive parts of the bill, such as tax incentives for wind and solar power, are vastly overshadowed by policies that would undermine environmental protections, add billions to the national debt and do nothing to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

The electricity section of the bill would open all public lands, including national parks, to the construction of electricity transmission lines, while other provisions would establish oil and gas development as the dominant use of federal public lands at the expense of water quality, property rights of ranchers and farmers, wilderness, wildlife and cultural, historical and recreational values. The bill would even exempt the oil, gas and coal industries from key components of the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and Safe Drinking Water Act.

The House of Representatives approved the bill Tuesday afternoon, so our last remaining chance of stopping the bill is a filibuster in the Senate, where a vote is expected as early as Thursday.

What to do:
Send a message right now, urging your senators to vote to filibuster the energy bill.

I don't have much to add, except that if I start to see drilling and other development activities on the amazing wild lands that surround me now, I will lose my marbles and get friendly with monkey wrenches.