Energy Bill Joins Senate Hall Of Shame
Washington, D.C., April 25, 2002 — The energy bill passed by the Senate today will do nothing to increase energy supplies but will raise energy prices for consumers in a number of ways, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />
“Senator Daschle's anti-energy bill proposes to spend tens of billions of taxpayers' dollars so that those taxpayers can have the privilege as consumers of paying higher energy prices,” said Myron Ebell, director of global warming policy at CEI. “It is one of the most incredible collections of misguided policies and wasteful federal spending in the history of the Senate. Instead of landing on the President’s desk, it deserves to end up in the Hall of Shame.”
The bill contains provisions that will have adverse effects on virtually every sector of the energy industry. “The Renewable Portfolio Standard for utilities will raise electricity prices, the ethanol mandate will raise gasoline prices, and dozens of new federal programs and agencies will create new regulatory bottlenecks, reducing energy production,” continued Ebell.
“There’s a payoff for every special interest in this bill, but nothing for American consumers,” said Ben Lieberman, senior policy analyst at CEI. “The prices of everything from air conditioners to the electricity to run them will increase.”
The bill passed by the Senate contrasts strongly with the more consumer-friendly energy bill passed by the House of Representatives. “This is a cry for help,” said Christopher C. Horner, senior fellow at CEI. “Not in recent memory has a legislative body so capitulated on issues of such critical importance to the future of the economy and the country.”
“This has got to be one of the most pointless bills ever passed out of the Senate,” said Paul Georgia, environmental policy analyst at CEI. “What began as an effort to secure reliable and affordable supply of energy became yet another vast corporate welfare boondoggle.”
CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. For more information about CEI, visit our website at www.cei.org or call 202-331-1010.