Untitled Document
What’s New
On August 8, 2005, President Bush signed into law an energy bill that is dirty, dangerous, and doesn’t deliver for consumers. The bill fails to reduce America’s dependence on oil, address the threat of global warming, or help consumers at the gas pump. Instead, the energy bill provides tens of billions of dollars to the oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries, significantly weakens environmental protections such as the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act, and undermines numerous consumer protections. Click here to read more.
How You Can Help
Tell your representative to support real energy solutions that were left out of the Bush energy plan like raising gas mileage standards to 40 miles per gallon.
Summary
Our reliance on dirty, unreliable, unsustainable sources of energy is causing problems across the country:
• Energy Pollution: Each year, energy-related smog and soot cause millions of asthma attacks and shorten the lives of at least 60,000 Americans. In the U.S., 82 percent of global warming pollution comes from energy production, and 95 percent of radioactive waste comes from nuclear power plants.
• Energy Ripoffs: In the U.S., 10 power companies control 42 percent of the electricity supply. The state of California has found that companies which supply electricity to California have purposely held back power to drive up prices. OPEC, the international association of oil producing countries that controls world prices of petroleum, has also announced that they will reduce production to drive up prices.
• Energy Blackouts: Californians have faced rolling blackouts. Yet California energy companies sued to avoid building new clean energy plants and spent $53 million in lobbying for and defending the new electricity laws that caused these problems.
We need a smarter, cleaner energy future. America deserves a safe, clean, and affordable energy future. We should use America's technological know-how to develop newer, cleaner sources of energy and make our cars, homes and appliances more energy efficient.
Unfortunately, President Bush’s backward-looking energy bill moved us in the wrong direction
In the States
While progress on sustainable energy and global warming solutions at the federal level remains limited to lip service and symbolic rhetoric, it is offset by the tremendous opportunities we have had to advance clean energy and global warming solutions at the state level. Click here to read about the tremendous progress we’re making at the state level.
Resources
Below is a brief archive of some of U.S. PIRG’s key analyses of the different versions of the Bush energy bill as it moved through Congress.
Summary of the Harmful Provisions in the Final Version of the Energy Bill 7/26/05 (PDF)
Analysis of Key Provisions in the House and Senate Energy Bills as of 8/03 (PDF)
