The only good thing to say about the energy bill that emerged from behind closed-doors this week is that it could have been worse.

Even so, it’s still lousy legislation that should be rejected.

Our objections begin with the way the bill was crafted and continue right down to the details.

Touted now as economic stimulus and a jobs creation package – questionable assertions at best – the bill does little to establish a coherent national energy policy. Instead, the proposal is an assortment of industry cronyism, political payoffs and pork-barrel spending.

Birthed in the smog-clogged backrooms of Vice President Dick Cheney’s secret energy task force and negotiated by energy industry lobbyists and a select few members of Congress, it is a bad deal that could result in higher energy prices in Maine while making our air dirtier.

Here’s what the bill does: It eases requirements in the Clean Air Act, weakens elements of the Clean Water Act, makes it easier to build power lines, pipelines and dams on public lands, protects the makers of gasoline additive MTBE from lawsuits stemming from the pollution of drinking water, and repeals the 1935 Public Utility Holding Company Act, which will allow consolidation of the electricity industry.

And while there’s much to-do about the conservation measures in the bill, they will only save about three months worth of energy consumption by 2020.

Here’s what it doesn’t do: It doesn’t increase fuel efficiency for cars and trucks, it doesn’t reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels or increase requirements for the use of clean, renewable sources of energy, such as wind, solar and biofuels. And it doesn’t address global warming.

Thankfully, it also doesn’t include oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or a plan to inventory offshore energy reserves in sensitive fishing areas, such as Georges Bank.

The bill seems to be of two minds on strengthening the power transmission grid. It forces reliability rules, but undermines efforts by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to create regional oversight agencies.

And here’s who gets paid: About two-thirds of the $23 billion in tax breaks and incentives in the bill go to oil, gas and coal industries. There are subsidies for nuclear power, which the administration hopes will lead to construction of new nuclear plants. Southern states will receive billions of dollars to industrialize their coastal areas and farm states in the Midwest will receive a windfall for an increase in ethanol production, which subsidizes corn production at the expense of gas prices in New England. And it shifts an estimated $30 billion of liability from

MTBE makers to states, localities and local business owners, even when negligence can be proven.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins has been out front in her disappointment over this legislation. Collins and her Senate colleagues should vote against the energy bill and do what’s necessary to keep it from becoming law.


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