Public Citizen Urges Senate Filibuster of Energy Bill in Last-Ditch Effort to Kill Regressive Plan
Nov. 18, 2003
Public Citizen Urges Senate Filibuster of Energy Bill in Last-Ditch Effort to Kill Regressive Plan
Statement by Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook
Today’s vote by the U.S. House of Representatives to approve the energy bill takes us one step closer to a national energy policy developed in secret by corporate executives and a few members of Congress who are showered in special interest money. The last hope for consumers is for the Senate to filibuster this regressive bill to its grave.
Public Citizen urges the Senate to filibuster the energy bill on behalf of all their constituents, who will not benefit from an energy plan that prioritizes polluting industries over safe and renewable energy, weakens environmental safeguards and opens up the electricity sector to massive consolidation and more Enron-style corporate fraud, price-gouging and market manipulation.
This entire process, which began when Vice President Cheney’s Energy Task Force met in secret with corporate lobbyists, highlights a dangerous trend in our democratic process – one in which citizens are shut out and corporations dictate policy behind closed doors. Americans deserve an energy policy that truly addresses the needs of consumers and the quality of the environment by promoting safe, clean and affordable energy while encouraging conservation and efficiency. This bill does the opposite. It does not even take baby steps toward improving fuel-economy, which even China is doing. It is a shameful sell-out to energy lobbyists and executives who care only about padding their own bottom line and lining their own pockets at the expense of the U.S. Treasury, the people who pay the bills and our precious environment.
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To read Public Citizen’s analysis of the energy bill’s electricity title, click here.