1. Threatens National Security

• Increases oil consumption -- At a time when oil prices are skyrocketing and our national security is threatened by our dependence on oil, this bill contains no meaningful oil savings provisions. Not only does the Senate bill fail to increase vehicle fuel economy, but also it would make it even more difficult for the Transportation Department to raise fuel economy than under current law by adding new criteria for any future increases in fuel economy. In addition, the bill extends a loophole that will increase gasoline consumption by 6 billion to 11 billion gallons by giving auto manufacturers credit for fuel efficiency by producing vehicles that are capable of running on an alternative fuel (ethanol) although they virtually never do.

• Increases Risk of Nuclear Proliferation -- While America sacrifices to prevent Iraq, Iran, and North Korea from acquiring weapons of mass destruction, this bill authorizes programs that would increase the risk of nuclear proliferation and further subsidize the nuclear industry. The Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative is an $865 million subsidy to the nuclear industry for reprocessing spent commercial nuclear fuel. According to a DOE report, this program would not obviate the need for a nuclear waste dump. At a time when national security concerns are heightened, this bill would reverse a long-standing U.S. nuclear non-proliferation policy against reprocessing waste from commercial nuclear reactors and against using plutonium to generate energy for commercial use.

2. Threatens Consumer Pocketbooks

• Repeals electricity consumer protections -- The legislation encourages more electricity market manipulation by repealing one of the only electricity consumer protections currently on the books, opening the door to more Enron-type abuses and California electricity disasters. Properly implemented, the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA) would require simplified corporate structures and easily monitored accounting practices. Instead the Senate energy bill repeals PUHCA. This clears the way for more power companies to set up complicated systems of subsidiaries to blur their financial pictures and manipulate electricity markets as Enron did.

• Contains massive new tax breaks for the oil, gas, coal, incinerator and nuclear industries -- The bill contains $10.7 billion in tax breaks to polluters including a first-ever tax break for burning coal—an incentive to increase global warming pollution.

• Threatens state and federal treasuries by reducing royalty payments -- The bill would allow the oil and gas industry to stop or reduce royalty payments to the government and states.

• Unprecedented and new nuclear subsidies -- These include an estimated $30 billion in federal loan guarantees to assist the nuclear industry in building 8,400 megawatts of new nuclear generating capacity. Under this provision, the federal government could also purchase power back from these new reactors, resulting in a double taxation of taxpayers to support a mature and dangerous industry. The bill also provides a massive and virtually immeasurable subsidy to the industry by permanently extending the Price Anderson Act, which limits the liability of the nuclear industry in the case of a serious accident and leaves the public with no guarantee that they will be adequately compensated.

• Contains incentives for destructive coalbed methane drilling-- The bill contains massive financial incentives to drill for coalbed methane, a practice that threatens thousands of acres of sensitive lands in the West and scarce water sources.

3. Threatens Coastal Areas And Sensitive Public Lands With Oil And Gas Exploration And Drilling

• Undermines the two decades old moratorium on oil and gas exploration and drilling off most of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts -- The oil and gas title would direct the Interior Department to inventory the oil and gas resources of the entire Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), including the moratorium areas, using seismic and other exploration technologies. It further requires that the Secretary report to Congress on "impediments" to the development of OCS oil and gas, including the moratoria, laying the groundwork for an attack on the moratoria, as well as on the rights of coastal states and local governments to have a say in offshore development and related onshore industrial development. This section conflicts with the OCS protections initiated by President George Bush Sr. in 1991, which have protected sensitive areas of the OCS from exploration and other oil and gas activities for many years. It would also promote harmful offshore oil development off environmentally sensitive coastal areas in Alaska.

• Accelerates oil and gas drilling in public lands -- The bill contains a number of provisions that would further erode existing environmental protections for the nation's public lands, which provide outstanding recreation opportunities, critical fish and wildlife habitats, and serve as the headwaters for most of the drinking water in the West. Most oil and gas resources on our public lands are already available for oil and gas development, which is proceeding at an unprecedented rate. Nonetheless, the energy bill seeks to further accelerate new development of our lands for oil and gas wells, pipelines, and roads by emphasizing speed at the expense of meaningful public involvement and environmental review of potential damage

• Exempts energy projects on Indian lands from environmental review -- The bill sets up a process that could remove the application of federal laws, such as the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA"), from decisions to lease oil and gas and other energy development projects, as well as site power lines, in Indian country. It includes lands owned by individual Indians that may be scattered among other lands, including National Parks and refuges, as well as private property. The bill also covers lands owned by Alaska Native corporations.

4. Threatens America's Rivers

Reduces environmental standards for hydroelectric dam relicensing -- With salmon and other fish stocks barely hanging on for survival, the bill undercuts requirements for fish passage at hydropower dams. The hydropower title would dramatically undercut more than 80 years of environmental law and policy by placing prohibitively burdensome requirements on fishery and land managing agencies responsible for regulating hydropower dams. By creating at least six new processes, Section 511 makes a complex process more so and grants industry "super-status" in these new proceedings, effectively leaving states, tribes and the public out in the cold. The most grievous provision of Section 511 would reduce the environmental standards for review of hydropower dams on federal lands and would allow dam owners to substitute conditions such as hatcheries in place of agency mandated fish passage facilities.