Congress Moves Toward An Affordable Energy Future

Washington, DC, August 2, 2001 — The Competitive Enterprise Institute commends the positive developments on energy policy this week in both the House and Senate.  The combination of the House passing key elements of the President’s energy plan and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee endorsing the Administration’s rejection of the Kyoto “global warming treaty” create a very positive prospect for American consumers and the future of our energy-intensive economy.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />

“The House was clearly listening to the American people in passing yesterday’s provisions,” said Myron Ebell, Director of Global Warming Policy at CEI.  “Despite the voices of professional activists who have campaigned for an energy-suppression regime of higher costs and restricted supplies, the House managed to produce a sensible, balanced approach that will enable industry to bring Americans the affordable energy they need.”

The bill’s provisions to allow greater energy exploration on federally-owned lands are a strong move away from the anti-energy policies of the Clinton-Gore administration, during which a web of regulations made it increasingly difficult to explore new oil and gas fields, construct new refineries and pipelines, or to improve aging facilities.  The combination of policies in the plan also send a clear signal to global warming alarmists that the President is not going to pursue the kinds of expensive and unnecessary carbon dioxide restrictions that many nations embraced at the United Nation’s global warming talks last month in Bonn, Germany.  It reassures those American allies, who sought in Bonn to limit Kyoto’s restrictions, that a Bush alternative will likely be a fairer, more sensible offering.

In the Senate, the Foreign Relations Committee endorsed the Administration’s rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, unanimously passing a resolution calling on the President to propose changes to Kyoto or prepare his own “greenhouse gas” proposal.  “The Senate has again made clear that ratifying the deeply flawed Kyoto Protocol is not an option,” said CEI analyst Christopher C. Horner.  “Just as with the 95-0 Senate resolution in 1997 opposing in advance any unfair treaty, like Kyoto, the Foreign Relations Committee has reiterated the wisdom of the President rejecting this economy-killing treaty.”

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information, please contact the media relations department at [email protected] or 202-331-1010.