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Congressman Chris Lee announced his "energy solutions" plan yesterday at a press conference in front of a local ethanol plant. Of course it's not really his plan: it's the "American Energy Act" put forward by the House Republicans. I'm not sure whether Lee is ashamed of carrying water for the far right wing of his party, or if he simply doesn't want people to find out the actual details of the "plan" he's pushing. For instance, the fact that it would legally ban any attempts to prevent or regulate climate change and global warming. Or that it gives billions of dollars in new subsidies to the oil and coal industries.
Of course, Lee doesn't admit to any of that on his website, not even the fact that this is a rehash of the same old game. He's out there pushing it as his own, right down to using the same "all of the above" talking point that the GOP sent out with the folders.
If it sounds like "more of the same" would have been a better description, you're not wrong. In fact, the "new" plan is the same one that the Republicans were pushing last year, written by Indiana Congressman Mike Pence: a prominent science denier, and a supporter of the Bush energy plan that gave free ride to strip-miners and oil companies. Even the central theme of their "clean energy" ideas are unchanged from a year ago--drill for more oil off the US coast, drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, give more sweetheart deals to big oil, and assume that it'll work out as well as the deals which gave us $4 a gallon gas.
And when that doesn't work, start strip-mining our national parks for oil shale, even though it's known to poison the air and water.
In fact, somebody did a study and determined that this sort of pro-conglomerate energy plan, when it was used by the Bush administration, ended up costing the average American household an extra $1,100 a year in energy costs: $170 for electricity and $960 for gas. I for one don't have that kind of cash laying around, particularly since the Bush economic plan (which Chris Lee also believes in) cost me my last job. I can't afford more of the system Chris Lee supports.
Indeed, you'd be hard pressed to name the difference between the Lee/Republicans "American Energy Act" and the Bush administration's energy policy. Token words directed at clean energy and green jobs, while funneling taxpayer dollars into the maw of big oil and coal companies. Unless it's the fact that the Bush administration's policy almost looks good in comparison to the even more extreme version that Lee and company are pushing.
Tomorrow I'll dissect some of the public statements on Chris Lee's website, and see how they stack up to the facts.
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