Three or more become a Congress by Amazonfemme, at amazonfemme 4:19 pm / 09 August 2005
At the opening of the perfectly splendid musical "1776," colonial malcontent (and future president) John Adams declares, "I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace, that two are called a law firm - and that three or more become a Congress."
The current Congress, in its latest attempt to prove Mr. Adams right, last week passed an energy bill that has almost nothing to do with energy, and almost everything to do with pork. As our oil consumption continues unabated, and gas prices have grown so unruly that you could feed an entire village in Niger with what it costs to fill your tank, the new legislation offers no useful solutions to our thorniest energy problems.
In fact, the bill that finally ended a decade of wrangling over energy issues does little to reduce our dependence on oil or provide relief from soaring fuel prices — and even less to expand renewable and alternative energy sources.
It does, however, provide great big juicy slabs of pork to energy companies, which not only get tax breaks and subsidies but also are exempted from certain environmental protection laws. And it delivers the bacon to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's home town in the form of subsidies for research into deep-water oil and gas drilling.
On the plus side, Congress did excise the loathsome plan to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That’s one of the few bright spots in what can only be considered a boondoggle for energy companies and a thump on the head for conservationists.
At least Daylight Saving Time will now last a month longer. Maybe those extra hours of daylight would best be put to use examining the infinite ways in which our national leadership continues to fail the environment and the citizens who inhabit it.
The current Congress, in its latest attempt to prove Mr. Adams right, last week passed an energy bill that has almost nothing to do with energy, and almost everything to do with pork. As our oil consumption continues unabated, and gas prices have grown so unruly that you could feed an entire village in Niger with what it costs to fill your tank, the new legislation offers no useful solutions to our thorniest energy problems.
In fact, the bill that finally ended a decade of wrangling over energy issues does little to reduce our dependence on oil or provide relief from soaring fuel prices — and even less to expand renewable and alternative energy sources.
It does, however, provide great big juicy slabs of pork to energy companies, which not only get tax breaks and subsidies but also are exempted from certain environmental protection laws. And it delivers the bacon to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's home town in the form of subsidies for research into deep-water oil and gas drilling.
On the plus side, Congress did excise the loathsome plan to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That’s one of the few bright spots in what can only be considered a boondoggle for energy companies and a thump on the head for conservationists.
At least Daylight Saving Time will now last a month longer. Maybe those extra hours of daylight would best be put to use examining the infinite ways in which our national leadership continues to fail the environment and the citizens who inhabit it.
