Senate Sends Largely-Irrelevant Energy Bill To Bush

by Steve

The Senate has just passed an energy bill that does very little to reduce consumption or wean us from Middle Eastern oil. The bill will now be sent on to Bush for signature next week.

Given this GOP Congress and its antipathy to do anything that solves a problem, this is about as good a bill as could be expected, especially since opening the Artic National Wildlife Refuge and the MTBE liability shield were eliminated from the final bill.

Democrats should immediately hammer the point between now and November 2006 that if voters want real progress on energy independence and global warming, as well as new high paying jobs developing alternative energy sources, vote for more Democrats. If you want more corporate welfare for oil companies, more bankrolling of Saudi terrorists and greater vulnerability to economic terrorism, vote to keep the Republicans in power.

They should also remind voters that if they don't like their high gasoline prices, they should thank the two oil industry guys in the White House, who have done little these last four years except make it easy through their inaction for Exxon to fatten its bottom line.