Letters to Congress  

TCS Action Letter to the House RE: Oppose the Energy Policy Act of 2003 April 10, 2003 Dear Representative, Taxpayers for Common Sense Action (TCS Action), a non-partisan, budget watchdog group, strongly opposes H.R. 6, the "Energy Policy Act of 2003". This legislation is rife with large taxpayer-funded subsidies given to mature energy industries. We urge you to vote against fianl passage. The "Energy Policy Act of 2003", introduced by Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee Chairman Barton, contains the following taxpayer giveaways: TCS Action is alarmed at the hydro incentive payments provision added to the bill by Congressman Shadegg. This subsidy program would last ten years and cost taxpayers more than 200 million dollars. The provision, added to Title III of Chairman Barton's energy bill, provides incentive payments of 1.8 cents per kilowatt-hour for capital investments at any non-federal facility that sells hydropower electricity. This language also includes payments for an additional $10 million a year for capital investments. Both subsidies apply to any qualified non-federal facility that sells hydropower electricity and will guarantee them the subsidy for at least the next ten years. TCS Action is vigorously opposed to this language and urges you to support any amendment to strike it from the bill. The bill provides over $2 billion from FY04 through FY07 to subsidize the nuclear industry. Since its inception, this industry has already received more than $66 billion in taxpayer subsidies. We are particularly concerned about bill sections 6411 and 6431 which provide $399 million over this time period to the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative Program, a program that would reprocess spent nuclear fuel. This program is incredibly expensive and would reverse U.S. policy against reprocessing of nuclear waste that was established during the Ford administration. This reprocessing of nuclear waste would yield weapons grade plutonium, which would be vulnerable to theft and diversion, creating a huge homeland security concern. These provisions should be stripped from the bill. The FreedomCAR Program is little more than a bad rerun of the Clinton administration's Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV). PNGV failed to meet its goal of an affordable 80-mpg car, despite huge taxpayer subsidies of over $1.25 billion from 1995-1999. With FreedomCAR, the Bush administration once again envisions joint research between the federal government and big auto manufacturers. In conjunction with FreedomCAR is the Hydrogen Fuel Program, so-called Freedom Fuel, which is slated to research affordability and cost-competitiveness of hydrogen fuel. FreedomCAR and Freedom Fuel amount to corporate welfare to the largest car manufacturers in the United States. These programs have no benchmarks to measure success and no requirement that results occur. These provisions amount to a subsidy of $1.799 billion from FY04 through FY08 and should be stripped from the bill. The bill establishes a fund called the "Ultra-Deepwater and Unconventional Natural Gas and Other Petroleum Products Fund." TCS Action is concerned about this provision which creates a new research and development grant program for ultra-deepwater drilling, which occurs at water depths greater than 1,500 meters. Industry representatives are clamoring for government funded subsidies of $3 to $5 billion in order to make this program economically viable. The reality is that many oil companies are already doing such exploration without government subsidies. The legislation is unclear as to whether this program will be funded through a direct appropriation or other means. Regardless, taxpayers should not be forced to pad the bottom line large oil companies when federal funding is unneeded to encourage exploration. TCS Action is very concerned about bill provisions that give $200 million a year for FY03 through FY11 on new coal programs that are being sold under the oxymoron of "clean coal." Taxpayers have provided massive subsidies of $2.4 billion to the coal industry through the "Clean Coal" Technology Program (CCTP) since 1984. According to the General Accounting Office (GAO), this program, which allegedly encourages private companies to develop cleaner burning coal, has been waste and mismanagement CCTP funds. Unfortunately, the goal of "clean coal" by its very nature is unattainable because coal is without question the dirtiest fossil fuel and burning it produces contaminates such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury. This has amounted to an egregious waste of money. The mature and very profitable coal industry does not need billions of dollars more in handouts from federal taxpayers. This legislation reauthorizes the Price-Anderson Act until 2017. The Price-Anderson Act was first enacted in 1957 as a temporary measure to jump-start the young nuclear power industry. This act limits the public liability of nuclear power plant operators, leaving federal taxpayers potentially on the hook for billions of dollars in the event of a nuclear incident. The nuclear industry is a mature industry and as such should be responsible for liability resulting from nuclear incidents. Taxpayers have already provided billions upon billions of dollars to subsidize this industry and should not have to carry the burden of liability any longer. The bill sets the stage for massive subsidies for natural gas producers in Alaska, potentially disrupting the domestic natural gas market. TCS Action is extremely concerned about bill language, which endorses the building of a natural gas pipeline system on the Alaskan North Slope, authorizing up to $20 million for a construction training program. This provision shows unfair bias towards specific natural gas producers in Alaska and is the beginning of large subsidies for the construction of a natural gas pipeline in Alaska. The "Energy Policy Act of 2003" amounts to a taxpayer-funded give-away to mature energy industry. At a time of mounting deficits, we can ill afford to waste precious taxpayer dollars on legislation that does little to advance the energy debate in our country. We urge you to oppose this legislation. Sincerely, Aileen Roder Program Director

Taxpayers for Common Sense is a non-partisan budget watchdog that serves as an independent voice for American taxpayers.  Now in its second decade of service to the nation, TCS seeks to ensure that our government spends taxpayer money efficiently and responsibly by working to eliminate wasteful and harmful federal spending.