Maurice Hinchey: “we need a comprehensive national energy bill to reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil by investing in cleaner…”

“we need a comprehensive national energy bill to reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil by investing in cleaner, safer ways to power America. The bill attached to this rule absolutely fails to reduce our growing demand for oil and will only increase our vulnerability by making us more dependent on foreign oil in the future. We need an energy policy that restores electric system reliability; keeps consumers' energy bills affordable; promotes energy conservation; provides more power from clean, renewable sources; and tackles global warming. Again, this bill fails miserably on every count. This energy bill is the most anti-consumer, anti-environment, pro-polluter, pro-corporate welfare legislation that I have seen in the 12 years that I have served in this House. It could cost consumers as much as $136 billion in subsidies to polluting industries and corporate handouts. The bill rewards energy companies with billions in subsidies while sticking taxpayers with the bill and the pollution and the bill for that pollution, which right now comes to about $167 billion in monetized health care costs cross the country. It eliminates consumer protections and subsidizes the construction of new nuclear power plants that most people do not want. The bill 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.”