BUSH AND ENERGY

[Dave_Schuldt]

WHAT A LOOSER

 

Dear NRDC Member,

 

I recently sent you this message by postal mail, but events are moving

so

rapidly I wanted to follow up by email so you can act on this as

quickly as

possible.

 

Over the next few weeks, President Bush and his congressional allies

will try

once again to ram their disastrous energy bill through the U.S. Senate.

They

fell only two votes short in November and they've vowed to make passage

of the

bill their top priority now that Congress has returned from recess.

 

This bill may be the worst piece of legislation you and I will see in

our

lifetimes. It would pick your pocket, despoil your natural heritage,

endanger

your family's health and smother your hope for a more secure energy

future. We

ignore this bill at our own peril.

 

Let me tell you our simple plan for thwarting this shameless attack on

our

environment and pocketbooks. If millions of Americans each took one

minute to

protest this bill, it would cause every senator who is tempted to vote

for it

to think twice about doing so.

 

You can make this happen within the next few hours by doing two things:

 

First, go to http://www.savebiogems.org/takeaction.asp?src=RR0401

and send your two senators an email or fax, telling them to vote

against this

pro-polluter energy bill. Then, forward my email to at least four of

your

friends, family members or colleagues.

 

I am emailing this message to 550,000 NRDC Members and activists. If

each one

forwards this message to just four more people, we will generate a

national

tidal wave of opposition before this day is over.

 

And that won't be a moment too soon. This disgraceful bill would pick

our

pockets to hand out billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to the

oil, coal

and nuclear industries. That's their long-awaited reward for making

big-time

contributions to the Bush-Cheney campaign. They profit while the rest

of us pay

the price -- in tax dollars and environmental degradation.

 

This bill gives the energy giants a free pass to drill their way

through our

last wild places, burn more dirty coal, build a new generation of risky

nuclear

power plants and dramatically increase air pollution that would sicken

the

vulnerable -- especially children and seniors -- for decades to come.

 

It would establish oil and gas development as the dominant use of our

federal

public lands, open national parks to the construction of electricity

transmission lines, exempt polluters from core provisions of our clean

air and

water laws and waive liability for the producers of the toxic gasoline

additive

MTBE -- even though it has contaminated at least 1,500 public water

supplies in

all 50 American states.

 

You'd be hard-pressed to come up with a more backward-looking, wasteful

and

self-defeating energy "plan" than this one. At a time when the federal

deficit

is soaring and we're going to war in the Persian Gulf oilfields, the

White

House wants to stick us with the tab for prolonging our destructive

dependence

on fossil fuels, foreign oil and dangerous nuclear technology.

 

This is not a national energy policy. This is corporate welfare, pure

and

simple. Estimates of the bill's corporate tax breaks range from $23

billion to

well over $100 billion with loan guarantees included. No surprise

there. Big

energy companies cooked up this raid on the federal treasury during

hundreds of

secret meetings with Vice President Cheney's energy task force and

their allies

on Capitol Hill.

 

It's one thing to gouge taxpayers. But to claim this rip-off is in the

national

interest, as the White House would have us believe, is a slap in the

face to

every working American.

 

Poll after poll shows that the vast majority of voters -- of both

parties --

understand that we simply must reduce our out-of-control appetite for

fossil

fuels if we ever are to secure energy independence. That means turning

American

rooftops into the Persian Gulf of solar energy. It means producing cars

that

get 40 miles per gallon. It means constructing efficient buildings that

use

half the energy of the average American office without sacrificing

comfort.

 

Making this transformation to a super-efficient, low-pollution economy

would

save consumers upwards of a trillion dollars, spare our last wild

places from

destruction, improve our health, slow global warming and reduce our

dependence

on undemocratic regimes overseas. It's a no-brainer to anyone living

outside

the White House.

 

But unless millions of Americans speak out right now, the enactment of

the

president's energy bill will doom us to an apocalyptic future of

blighted

wilderness, poisonous air pollution, devastating climate change and

endless

wars over fossil fuels.

 

Please make your voice heard. Go to

http://www.savebiogems.org/takeaction.asp?src=RR0401

and tell your senators to obey the will of the American people, *not*

the

dictates of giant energy corporations! Call on Congress to create a

sustainable

and affordable energy path.

 

And please be sure to forward this message to at least four other

people.

Believe me, millions of Americans are just waiting for a simple way to

stop

this madness and lend their support to a sane and hopeful energy

future.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Robert Redford

Board of Trustees

Natural Resources Defense Council

Edited February 7, 2004 by Dave_Schuldt

[HRoark]

Oooooh, Bob Redford. There's a fount of intellectual prowess!!!

[cracked]

WHAT A LOOSER

[catbirdseat]

Regardless of what you think of the environmental provisions, this bill is a giveaway of taxpayer money to corporate interests. It is not in anyone's interest except if you happen to be a shareholder of oil and energy companies.