Dangerous Senate Energy Bill Threatens Environmental Progress
August 2003

Arkansas Chapter Sierra Club

The Sierra Club stands for certain ideals. We all agree that these ideals are crucial for living in this modern age while maintaining our fragile environment. The road that brought us to this point has been littered with many hurdles, none of which compare to the amount of damage possible from the newly proposed Senate energy bill (S. 14). Decades of progressive advancement in preservation will be reversed if this bill is passed.

The energy bill will give $10.7 billion in tax breaks to polluting companies, which includes a first-ever tax break for burning coal. We shouldn't stand for a policy that would blatantly encourage air pollution. Moreover, the energy bill will also allow for the destruction of ocean habitat. The energy bill opens up the Outer Continental Shelf for drilling and exploration, which reverses the longtime ban that has protected the areas that provide for most of the drinking water in the West. Under the policies proposed by the energy bill, this area would be in danger of becoming yet another environmental casualty.

As if it could get any worse, the proposed energy bill makes no mention of a Renewable Energy Standard (RES). A RES would make a goal of improving environmental quality, like a rise in fuel efficiency in cars and trucks. An energy bill without an included RES does nothing to encourage the lowering of our dependence on foreign oil. A mandated rise in fuel efficiency is the most financially, timely, and environmentally efficient means of curbing oil dependency in the United States. The energy bill fails on all of these counts.

You are probably feeling concerned as myself. Let's call on our two Arkansas senators and tell them to vote "no on S.14". Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper explaining why the senate energy bill is bad for our country. Let people know that we need to move toward the future, not toward the past. People need to know about this energy bill, and we need to help them understand how dangerous it truly is.