Earth Day gift from US House

Energy bill passes chamber of people's deputies


They don't care

The Energy Bill that just passed the US House of Representatives is yet another attempt to push through this travesty of a decorated Christmas tree of polluters' pork that is void of progressive ideas like increased fuel economy standards.

If you want to know the details, please read the extensive analysis published last fall by the Boston Globe. They calculated that, ``...entities with a stated interest in energy policy spent $387,830,286 lobbying Washington last year.''

What favors for industry and pork projects will we get from this bill? Drilling the arctic and lawsuit immunity for makers of the groundwater-polluting chemical MBTE are only the beginning. A cadre of rapacious land developers has hitched a ride aboard this bill in order to get the public to swallow in a laughable ``greenbonds initiative'' the all the risk for a plethora of dicey projects, including the $2 billion mega-mall project in upstate New York known as DestiNY USA.

Also on the dream list in the bill is an incredible $1 billion nuclear reactor/hydrogen fuel boondoggle for Idaho and its local pork dealer, Senator Larry Craig. Deep Blade blogged about this incredible proposal back in November 2003. Meaanwhile, the hydrogen car initiative the nuclear-hydrogen fuel program would support is seen as ``bullshit'' by House Resources chairman Richard Pombo, Republican of California.

And while they're at it, they figure this is a good time to jumpstart the Enron economy by repealing the Public Utility Holding Company Act.

It's all so sickening. We find our planet on its steepest downward trajectory since the first Earth Day 35 years ago in 1970. Maybe this year something will happen to help wake people up and turn this thing around. The HOPE Festival is in Orono tomorrow!!