Rick Allen: “America needs an energy policy that increases our national security, encourages new technologies, enhances economic…”

“America needs an energy policy that increases our national security, encourages new technologies, enhances economic growth, preserves the environment, and protects consumers. Our nation now spends nearly $200,000 per minute overseas to buy oil, mostly from undemocratic regimes. But this bill does not redirect American energy policy. H.R. 6 only reinforces the failed energy policies of the past, policies which have increased our dependence on fossil fuels. Unfortunately, this bill never escaped the circumstances of its conception in the secret, closed door meetings between Vice President Cheney and the CEOs of the energy industry. Instead of seeking a balanced, bipartisan energy policy, this legislation discards key compromises forged with the widespread support of Republicans and democrats in the 107th Congress. It puts the interests of big energy ahead of consumers and the environment. The bill before us rewards private industry at the expense of the public interest and national security. It provides a $200 million subsidy to the hydro industry; a $397 million subsidy for nuclear fuel reprocessing, a process banned since the Ford Administration; a $1.7 billion hydrogen subsidy to the auto industry; and a $1.8 billion subsidy for clean coal technology. The legislation opens a pristine wilderness, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to oil drilling. The bill opens the possibility of oil drilling in offshore areas of the Gulf of Maine.”