Harmful Provisions in the Senate Energy Bill Passed out of Committee (S 10) PUBLIC HEALTH Dramatically increases air pollution and global warming with huge new incentives for burning coal, oil and gas. Titles III, IV, VIII Fails to do anything to address global warming.
PUBLIC LANDS AND RIVERS Expands the reach of the Secretary of Interior’s authority to permit oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska without adequate protection for wildlife habitat, native hunting and fishing and sensitive areas. The provisions maximize the ability of the industry to hold on to leases without actually producing oil and gas and allow the Secretary to give away public resources to private companies by waiving all fees and royalties. Title III Sec. 317 Grants unprecedented power to hydropower dam owners, creates a complex and unworkable process for imposing environmental measures in hyrdopower dam licenses, and weakens environmental standards. Title II Sec. 261 Authorizes a 5-year "pilot program" for expediting the approval of energy projects in the Rocky Mountain region. Title III Sec. 344 Lifts the state-wide limitation on the amount of federal oil and gas acreage one entity can control, encouraging monopolization of the acquisition of federal oil and gas resources. Title III Sec. 323 Removes the Secretary of Interior and public from decision-making for all types of energy development projects on Indian lands in favor of a new process. Title V Sec. 501-505 It would create a Federal Purchase Requirement for renewable fuels, and authorize $ 250 million over five years for biomass utilization, but does not protect sensitive areas including roadless areas, old growth forests, and other endangered forests, and does not restrict eligibility to renewable sources or prohibit possible conversion of native forests to plantations. Old growth forests and roadless areas are not “renewable,” and provide a critical role in reducing fire risk and maintaining forest health. Title II Sec. 203, 231-234
COASTAL AREAS Seeks to create unprecedented streamlined authority for the Department of Interior to permit new energy projects in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) without adequate oversight or standards. Title III Sec. 321 Requires an invasive “seismic inventory” of the entire Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), including within sensitive waters long-protected by a bipartisan congressional moratorium and by executive leasing deferrals enacted by former President George H.W. Bush. High-intensity seismic surveys, using strong shockwaves from ship-towed “airguns”, have been implicated in permanent damage to fisheries and to other marine life. Title III Sec. 326 Attempts to weaken states’ ability under the Coastal Zone Management Act to have a say in projects and federal activities that affect their coasts including limiting appeals related to pipeline construction or offshore mineral development. Title III Sec. 387 Promotes the development of oil and gas, including sensitive moratoria protected lands through ill-defined studies of energy resources within the OCS. Title XIII Sec. 1319. Gives away taxpayer owned oil and gas to the petroleum industry in fragile Alaskan waters, through royalty suspensions. Title III Sec. 316
CONSUMERS, TAXPAYERS, AND THE PUBLIC Mandates royalty exemptions for offshore wells deeper than 400 meters. Title III Sec. 315 Authorizes nuclear energy research and development, including the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Power 2010 Program to construct new nuclear power plant and the Department of Energy’s Generation IV Program to develop new reactor designs. Title IX Sec. 942 Allows the federal government to give private utilities the right to take private land by eminent domain to site transmission lines if the state has not acted within one year. First-time-ever sweeping federal preemption of state authority to site transmission lines, based on very vague criteria. Title XII Sec. 1221 Extends for 20 years the Price Anderson Act’s limits on liability for nuclear plant operators, which would guarantee limited liability for the nuclear industry in case of a catastrophic accident. Title VI Sec. 601-609 Unlimited taxpayer-backed loan guarantees for up to 80% of the cost of a project, including building new nuclear power plants. The Congressional Research Service estimated that the taxpayer liability for loan guarantees covering up to 50% of the cost of building six to eight new reactors would be $14-16 billion. This provision authorizes "such sums as are necessary.” Title VI Repeals the Public Utility Holding Company Act, the main law to protect consumers from market manipulation, fraud, and abuse in the electricity sector even while evidence of corrupt industry behavior is still front page news and ratepayers are owed billions to compensate for the industry's illegal activities. Title XII Sec. 1273 Authorization of more than $1.25 billion from FY2006 to FY2015 and "such sums as are necessary" from FY2016 to FY2021 for a nuclear plant in Idaho to generate hydrogen fuel, a boondoggle that would make a mockery of clean energy goals. Title VI Sec. 661-665 Spends $1.8 billion for coal-based technologies, and add pork-barrel loan guarantees for the first time in the 17-year history of program. Title IV
ENERGY & NATIONAL SECURITY Reverses a long-standing U.S. nuclear non-proliferation policy against reprocessing waste from commercial nuclear reactors and against using plutonium to generate energy for commercial use. Title IX, Sec. 943 Fails to take any step whatsoever to require that the nation reduce its dependence on oil or improve the fuel economy of our cars, trucks and SUVs. Title VII Authorizes $580 million over 3 years for DOE's program for research and development of nuclear reprocessing technologies, which reverses the long-standing U.S. policy against it and needlessly augments security and environmental threats. Title IX Sec. 941 & 943 Strikes down requirements in current law for utilities to diversify and decentralize the electricity supply by purchasing small amounts of renewable power. Replaces it with nothing. Title XII, Sec. 1253 (m)
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