Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy
Conference Report On H.R.6, The Energy Policy Act Of 2003
November 20, 2003

Many a bad book has a ghostwriter, and so do many bad bills.  When you read through this 1100-page energy bill, it is clear who the ghostwriters were: the oil, gas, coal and ethanol industries that – surprise, surprise -- would reap almost $20 billion in tax subsidies from this bill.  The voices of these ghostwriters echo throughout this bill.  But the cost to taxpayers does not stop there.  If taxpayers feel their wallets getting lighter this week it’s because this bill will cost them another seventy-plus billion dollars in other subsidies over the next ten years. 

Unfortunately, the 1100 pages are full of special interest giveaways but empty of innovative and sustainable energy policy that will ensure Americans clean, reliable and affordable power in the future.  Some of our Republican colleagues are trying to sell this bill to the American public as a balanced energy plan to give our nation energy security over the decades to come.  It is not.  It will only increase our reliance on unsustainable, petroleum-based energy sources.  It undercuts recent progress in developing renewable energy sources and technologies that reduce pollution.  It undermines the reliability of our electricity markets by opening the door to more manipulation and mergers and stalling regional efforts to improve the transmission grid. 

The Senate sent a decent energy bill to conference, and we got back a frog.  The roster of squandered taxpayers dollars and squandered opportunities in this bill is breathtaking to behold.

The American people could have expected that we could have learned from this summer’s blackout – still fresh in our experience and on our minds -- and used this bill to address what went wrong and build upon what went right.  Incredibly, this bill does the opposite.  In New England, we have already created a regional organization to increase reliability of our transmission lines.  It was able to stop the blackout from cascading farther into Vermont and other states.  Instead of using this organization as a model, this bill actually discourages utilities in other regions of the country from joining regional organizations.  It could also discourage badly needed new investment in the transmission grid.

The bill also does not do enough to protect consumers and ratepayers from manipulation of energy markets.  There is no prohibition on the price-gouging schemes employed by companies like Enron, even though the Senate supported such protections by a wide margin.  The bill repeals a 70-year-old law to restrict mergers of utility companies with other companies where they have no expertise.  In the past, this practice has caused financial troubles for utilities and consequently, the ratepayers.    

The American people could have hoped that this bill would do more to emphasize technological innovation that would promote clean and sustainable energy.  Instead, it barely holds on to the status quo in incentives for renewables and energy efficiency.  If we are going to avoid future blackouts, we have to decrease demand on the electricity grid as well as make improvements to it.  But instead of working to advance technologies to create jobs and reduce pollution, we have a bill that gives oil, gas, ethanol and nuclear companies enormous subsidies.

At the same time, this bill fails to address one of the biggest energy and environmental issues facing our country: how to improve fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks.  In fact, the bill actually would enlarge a loophole for huge SUVs that will actually encourage more people to buy these gas guzzlers.  We all have heard of the SUV dealerships that are actually use the existing tax loophole in their TV ads. 

The bill also hands Vermont drivers a double whammy by mandating the use of 5 billion gallons of ethanol by 2012, while threatening deep revenue losses to the Highway Trust Fund.  Under this bill, Vermonters and drivers in other states could expect higher prices at the pump due to this mandate, and more potholes in their roads due to the Trust Fund cuts. 

While the bill fails to take any steps forward on energy policy, it takes a giant step backward on environmental protections.  When the Clinton Administration strengthened the requirements for reducing smog around cities, it was hailed as a major step toward reducing asthma and other chronic illnesses.  Well, by postponing these ozone attainment targets, no one will be breathing easier after this bill except the special interests. 

Although you won’t be able to see much through the smog when you’re looking up, you might see more when you’re looking down, and what you see will be unwelcome.  This bill includes several new provisions that let polluters off the hook when it comes to reducing contaminates in groundwater and drinking water.  It protects producers of the gasoline additive MTBE from liability if their product is found to be defective.  In Vermont and around the country, states and communities face multi-million dollar bills for cleaning up the MTBE that already has leached into the groundwater.  At least one court has already found MTBE producers liable for these clean up costs because of product defects, and several other cases are pending.  To make sure these cases are stopped, the energy bill makes the provision retroactive, wiping out cases filed in September by several New York communities and New Hampshire.    

The list goes on and on, and so do the echoes of the ghostwriters’ voice in this bill.  This turkey would waive environmental analysis for energy projects on public lands.  It would exempt oil and gas drilling from requirements of the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act.  It would open coastal areas to oil and gas development.  It also would reduce support for clean-coal technology in favor of the conventional dirty power plants.  This will simply mean that more toxic pollutants like mercury will get dumped on Vermont’s forests, lakes and rivers.

Days after this Administration entered the White House, they closed the doors to the public and started to put together the energy industry’s wish list of subsidies and environmental and consumer protection rollbacks.  Well, Christmas came early this year for the special interests.  The energy bill now before Congress is stuffed with everything on that wish list, plus just about everything else that these special interests could dream up when they were given the chance. 

The bill before us now costs three times more than the proposal that the Administration first put on the table two years ago.  When you look at the list [CLICK HERE FOR LIST] of special-interest giveaways, it is no wonder the bill was written behind closed doors.

The President and the Congress had a real opportunity to produce a bill that would lead the nation towards balanced, sustainable, clean energy production.  This bill fails on all counts.  Instead, we have 1100 pages worth of policies that will increase our dependence on fossil fuels, prop up wealthy energy corporations, repeal consumer protections and threaten environmental and public health.  I do not see how my Republican colleagues can any longer justify their drastic cuts to vital social programs while pushing through this $100 billion, counterproductive budget-buster for the energy industry. 

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[CLICK HERE FOR LIST OF SPECIAL-INTEREST PROVISIONS]