Alert on Rep. John Salazar! Call Today Against this Hurtful Energy Bill -

[Coloradan4Truth]

Subject: Alert for all Colorado based groups on Rep. Salazar

Rep. John Salazar is leaning toward voting for the Horrid Energy Bill before the US House of Representatives!
Please call him today, tomorrow and the next day. If you have connections with Salazar—please use them. If you want, add a thank you in there —he did come out in support of protecting the Roan Plateau.

This huge energy bill is horrid for clean water, landowners and our environment. Please send a strong message to Salazar.

If you have any questions, please call Dan Randolph at 259-3583.

Call Representative Salazar to Oppose the Energy Bill!
April 18, 2005

The House of Representatives will vote this week on a bill that is bad for consumers, taxpayers, landowners and the West. This is the third time Congress is trying to pass an energy bill. The energy bills introduced in the last two sessions of Congress have died without passing.

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What You Can Do:
Call Representative Salazar today and urge him to OPPOSE the Energy Bill. Call Representative Salazar at 202-225- 4761.


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The following alert is from the Western Organization of Resource Councils:

What to Say When You Call:
Identify yourself and where you're from. You're calling to ask the Representative to vote against the energy bill because ... (use any of the reasons listed below.)

1. The bill fails to address high gasoline prices
* The Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that last year's very similar energy bill would lead to higher gasoline prices.

2. The bill fails to significantly reduce our dependence on imported oil.
* The EIA also found that under last year's very similar energy bill, the U.S. would still increase its imports of foreign oil by 85% to 19.45 million barrels a day by 2025.

3. The bill is even more tilted towards dirty energy sources than previous energy bills, and fails to diversify our energy sources towards cleaner and more efficient sources.
* The bill would allocate nearly 95% of its tax incentives to polluting industries, committing taxpayers to spend money they don't have for dirtier air nobody wants.
* The bill fails to include a renewable electricity standard (RES) that would require utilities to purchase increasing amounts of power from clean renewable sources such as wind and solar.

4. The bill's exemptions for the oil and gas industry threaten the West's precious water supplies.
* The bill would exempt the technique known as hydraulic fracturing from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, and potentially allow contamination of water supplies by diesel fuel and other hazardous chemicals.
* The bill would exempt oil and gas construction activities from the Clean Water Acts pollution controls, resulting in unregulated discharges of contaminated sediment into waterways.
* The bill would let oil companies off the hook for polluting groundwater with the toxic fuel additive MTBE, forcing taxpayers to pick up a $29 billion tab for cleaning up contaminated water.
* The bill does not offer much-needed new protections for irrigation, stock and drinking water supplies that are threatened by oil and gas drilling operations.

5. The bill guts the National Environmental Policy Act's public participation and environmental review provisions.
* The bill would exempt many federal energy projects from NEPA, including those that disturb less than 5 acres, and disposal of water produced by oil and gas drilling.
* For federal renewable energy projects, the bill would cut the public participation period from 45 days to 20 days, and would no longer require agencies to consider alternatives with fewer environmental impacts or greater environmental benefits.
* The bill would waive NEPA's environmental review and public participation process for all energy development projects on Indian lands in favor of an unspecified new process.
* The bill would require the Bureau of Land Management to issue oil and gas permits within 10-30 days, making complying with NEPA virtually impossible.

6. The bill attacks landowers' property rights and rushes permit decisions.
* The bill would grant the federal government the right to take private property for electric transmission lines (known as eminent domain authority), and potentially circumvent more landowner-friendly eminent domain laws in the states.
* The bill would require the Bureau of Land Management to issue oil and gas permits in 10-30 days -- not nearly enough time for impacted landowners to review and comment on permits.
* The bill fails to offer much needed new protections for surface owners who have federally-owned minerals under their property. As the law now stands, landowners have a limited say in mineral development on their land.