Conference Report on H.R. 6, Energy Policy Act of 2005
CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 6, ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 2005 -- (Extensions of Remarks - September 06, 2005)
SPEECH OF
HON. BETTY McCOLLUM
OF MINNESOTA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2005
Ms. MCCOLLUM of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, Congress had the opportunity and the charge to develop a comprehensive energy policy that would make America safer, decrease our dependency on foreign oil, and invest in the next generation of clean and renewable energy.
Unfortunately, H.R. 6 fails the current and future needs of our Nation miserably. As gas prices and oil industry profits rise, this bill rewards oil and gas companies with $2.8 billion in tax breaks and provides $1.4 billion in tax breaks for coal producers. These corporate giveaways only continue our addiction to Middle Eastern oil and enable our dependency on old and polluting technologies.
Mr. Speaker, the U.S. needs to be a world leader in energy self-sufficiency through conservation, alternative energy sources, and responsible leadership from the White House and Congress. Regrettably, this bill fails on all those counts. It neglects to include a Renewable Portfolio Standard, which would have required large electric companies to obtain 10 percent of their power from clean renewable energy sources by 2020. This act, once again, fails to increase much-needed fuel efficiency standards of cars and trucks.
As if this bill was not already bad enough, a new provision appeared after the conference committee had adjourned, which steers $1.5 billion to a private consortium located in the home district of Republican Majority Leader TOM DELAY. It provides that the consortium, of which Halliburton is a member, can keep up to 10 percent of the funds for administrative purposes. This is an outrage and a mockery of the democratic process.
America deserves a comprehensive energy policy that invests in the development of the next generation of fuel sources like fuel cells, hydrogen power and home grown Minnesota fuels like ethanol. I was pleased to see the measure tripling the amount of ethanol required in gasoline by 2012, but this bill could have done so much more to liberate our Nation from Saudi Arabian and Middle Eastern oil and move our Nation toward a sustainable and energy-independent future.
Mr. Speaker, this is an energy bill for 1950, not 2050. It would have been difficult to support this outmoded policy decades ago, and I certainly cannot vote for it today.
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