Senator
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

RE: Stop the regressive and damaging energy bill!

Dear Senator ,

H.R.6, "The Energy Policy Act of 2003," is an extremely regressive package of subsidies to the energy industry and an insult to all Americans who care about our children, our environment, our national security, and our future. I strongly urge you to do everything in your power to defeat it AND to strongly oppose any attempts to pass any of the damaging provisions of this bill by attaching them to other legislation.

The legislation was written by the "energy task force," essentially a congress of energy industry representatives. The policy initiatives put forth by that exclusive, undemocratic group ultimately became H.R.6, the industry’s dream bill. The bill will cost a staggering $23.4 billion in tax breaks, most of which will go to the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear industries. If passed into law, H.R.6 would be a windfall for these industries, but a disaster for consumers, taxpayers, and the environment.

Just a few of the destructive, regressive and damaging provisions in this reprehensible bill include:

• Giving $14.5 billions of dollars in tax breaks to the oil, gas, and coal industries.
• Repealing the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA), which would allow for the expansion of deregulation and more Enron-style debacles.
• Extending the Price-Anderson nuclear power plant insurance subsidy for 20 years to cover new reactors and authorizing more than $2 billion for nuclear energy research and development.
• Providing $1.1 billion for a the "Advanced Hydrogen Reactor Co-generation Project," a radioactive boondoggle that would make a mockery of clean energy goals.
• Authorizing $30 million to fund "in-situ" leaching mining projects, which would encourage a method of uranium mining that could pollute drinking water in New Mexico.
• Waiving permit requirements under the Clean Water Act for oil and gas exploration.
• Authorizing $1.8 billion for research into so-called "clean coal" technologies, which are no cleaner than older retrofitted coal plants and will result in more greenhouse gas and mercury pollution.
• Extending the fraudulent program that provides flexible fuel credits for "duel fuel" automobiles, an enormous loophole which could decimate any savings from the Bush administration’s puny fuel economy increase.
• Amending the Clean Air Act to extend deadlines by which large metropolitan areas must meet federal guidelines governing acceptable ozone levels, without requiring more stringent air pollution controls.

What the energy bill does not include is also significant. Absent is a "Renewable Portfolio Standard" (RPS) requiring utilities to progressively incorporate renewable electricity-generation sources into their production portfolio, despite a letter from 53 Senators supporting this policy. The bill also fails to enact meaningful fuel economy standards or require significant reductions of "greenhouse gases" that contribute to global warming.

Please take a stand for all Americans and for our future by stopping this outrageous bill.