A small victory -- but now what?

Washington, DC: The Sierra Club today praised the Senate for stopping the disastrous energy policies of the Bush Administration. The vote to sustain a filibuster of the ruinous bill marks a huge victory for public health and environmental and consumer protections.

"The Senate put the brakes on an energy bill hatched in secret by the Bush Administration and their friends in polluting energy industries. Concerned citizens around the country told their Senators they would hold them accountable for more pollution in their drinking water, dismantled environmental and consumer protections, more global warming and air pollution, and pillaged public lands," said Carl Pope, Executive Director of Sierra Club. "It is critical that Senators stand strong to rebuff repeated attempts by the Administration to pass this terrible piece of legislation."

Developed three years ago in the backroom meetings of the Bush/Cheney Energy Task Force, this energy bill was an act of secrecy from start to finish. Earlier this week, the House passed the 1000-plus page bill although it was only released to the public for the first time on Saturday. The American people were given almost no time to examine the myriad disastrous provisions of the bill before Congress voted.

"Make no mistake: this bill would benefit the worst polluting industries in America without cutting our oil dependence, decreasing the risk of blackouts or creating jobs," Pope said. "Instead of taking responsible steps forward, this bill would take us backward and put our communities at risk. This bill elevates the profits of the polluting corporations funding the Bush administration over the public good. The majority of Americans don't want to breathe dirtier air, they don't want to drink polluted water, and they don't want their precious natural heritage sold out to the oil and gas industry."

Some of the worst provisions of the bill included:

* Making oil and gas drilling the dominant use of our public lands.
* Weakening the Clean Air Act and making it easier for polluters to dirty our air for longer.
* Exempting damaging oil and gas activities from the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts.
* Letting MTBE (a gasoline additive known to contaminate drinking water) manufacturers off the hook for cleaning up their own messes and saddling local communities with a $29 billion cleanup cost.
* Giving billions of dollars to the polluting coal, oil and nuclear industries.
* Threatening our coasts by limiting state ability to object to federal activities off their coasts that may threaten their coastlines.

The bill also fails to: decrease oil dependence by improving fuel economy for cars, SUVs and other light trucks; protect electricity consumers and prevent blackouts; and increase energy security by producing more of our energy with clean renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.

The Sierra Club looks forward to supporting a future energy policy based on smart choices. By using innovative 21st century clean energy technologies, we can clean up our environment, cut the country's dangerous dependence on oil, increase our use of clean, renewable energy, and prevent future blackouts.