CORPORATISM - LOOKING GLASS NEWS | |
Making a Mockery of Conservation |
|
by Kelpie Wilson AlterNet Entered into the database on Friday, October 07th, 2005 @ 19:09:39 MST |
|
The Bush administration and its industry pals are using the hurricane
disasters to target the Arctic Refuge and offshore drilling, and get even richer
in the bargain. A senior energy analyst at the recent API (American Petroleum Institute)
convention warned that if the U.S. petroleum industry doesn't reduce its
refining capacity, it will never see any substantial increase in refining
margins... Billionaire oil baron John Paul Getty knew that the secret to accumulating
great wealth was to never miss an opportunity. He even installed a pay telephone
at his English country estate to ensure that guests paid for their own calls.
If he wasn't going to get your dime one way, he'd get it another. The Bush regime follows the same methods to accumulate wealth and power,
and they've had no trouble finding ways to use the recent hurricane disasters
to keep fortunes flowing their way. Bush and the Republicans have a well-known agenda of removing all regulatory
restrictions on industry. They have already suspended labor and contracting
laws to "speed" Gulf Coast reconstruction. Now they are using the
disaster-spawned energy crunch to break down environmental laws and restrictions
that they failed to destroy with last summer's energy bill. Three big ones are
now in their sights: the Clean Air Act, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,
and restrictions on offshore oil drilling. The House is scheduled to
vote today on what's being called the "refinery bill" after the
perceived need to hurry up and build a lot of new oil refineries. All summer
long (since well before hurricane season), the business press was blaming high
gas prices on a lack of refinery capacity. Supposedly, strict environmental
laws have kept new refineries from being built. But the reality is far different. Several years ago, Senator Ron Wyden's office started looking into the issue
of U.S. refinery capacity and found documents -- oil industry internal memos
-- that show that oil companies deliberately shut down refineries all through
the 1990s in order to keep supply throttled and profit margins high. Wyden stated: "Information I have received during my ongoing investigation
raises serious concerns that the nation's major oil suppliers have set out in
a strategic effort to orchestrate a financial triple play, a coordinated effort
that would reduce supply, raise prices at the pump and relax environmental regulations." Between 1995 and 2001, 24 refinery closings took offline nearly 830,000 barrels
of oil per day. At the same time, oil industry profits rose hugely. Taking the
example of Texaco, the report found that while the company's production steadily
decreased from 1998 to 2000, its net income more than quadrupled during the
same period. Texaco gets high marks as an energy hog. You can read Wyden's report
here.
[PDF] Now that they've got the reduced supply and high prices they wanted, the oil
industry is working on the relaxing-environmental-rules part of their triple
play, and that's what the refinery bill is really about. The real target of the refinery bill is the Clean Air Act's New Source Review
(NSR). The NSR program requires owners of aging power plants and industrial
facilities to modernize pollution controls whenever they expand their facilities
and increase emissions. But the refinery bill doesn't just exempt refineries
from New Source Review requirements. It exempts ALL energy industry facilities
-- approximately 20,000 large industrial facilities and power plants across
the country -- not just on the Gulf Coast. The refinery bill would also allow cities with the worst smog problems to simply
skip their cleanup deadlines for years. And it would take refinery permitting
authority away from states, keeping the power flowing to the federal government. The bill would also repeal the one environmental accomplishment that the Bush
administration can take credit for: EPA's new clean diesel standards. A great
chance to clean up that mistake! The public learned this week that House Republicans would not try to open up
the Arctic Refuge and protected offshore areas to oil drilling with this refinery
bill, but it will be a short respite. Republicans will insert both items into
the budget reconciliation process that starts at the end of October. That's
how it works. They never miss an opportunity. It was a little disconcerting to see that the Bush administration has actually
launched an energy conservation program as announced this week. It's just not
like them. Could they be slipping? Trying to give something back to the little
people? Perhaps something like the two-billion-dollar program the Canadian government
just approved to give rebates to people struggling with high energy costs? But no worries, Bush's program is nothing but an ad campaign that uses a cartoon
mascot, "Energy Hog," to pass out tips to consumers to help "put
the chill on winter energy bills." The only problem is that Energy Hog is dressed like a punk anarchist, with
spiky hair and piercings. He looks nothing at all like J. Paul Getty. Kids might
get the wrong idea. |