Nick Rahall: “this is now the third Congress energy policy legislation has been under consideration. During the course of this period…”

“this is now the third Congress energy policy legislation has been under consideration. During the course of this period I have consistently opposed the House versions of this legislation. Today, however, I am pleased to be in the position of voting for the pending conference agreement. The fundamental reason for my being able to now support this legislation is because many of the most troubling provisions in the past House versions which caused my opposition are largely no longer present in the final product before us today. I have been troubled in the past by the inclusion of provisions waiving the National Environmental Policy Act, the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to development, inappropriate and unseemly taxpayer giveaways to Big Oil, as well as unwarranted liability relief to certain fuel manufacturers. I was not gullible enough to think that the conference would clean the slate entirely of giveaways to Big Oil, but aside from that issue, these provisions that I have long opposed are, for the most part, not present in the pending legislation. In addition, I have opposed past versions of this legislation because they contained provisions which unfairly provided western coal produced on federal lands a competitive advantage over all other coal producing regions including my home State of West Virginia. Those provisions have been mitigated in the pending measure.…”