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Gathering Place
Tom Sebas |
‘Increase energy use’ bill
a disgrace to our countryDoug MacIntyre, senior oil market analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based Energy Information Administration predicts that oil imports will rise to 68 percent of total U.S. consumption by 2025. The 1,700-page energy bill now up for a final vote in Congress assures this future, reflecting a lack of environmental leadership in the Bush administration.
The energy bill does nothing to encourage conservation. The United States has 5 percent of the world's population and, under this bill, will continue to consume 25 percent of the world's oil supply. One of the most disgusting aspects of the bill is the SUV loophole that gives small-business owners a tax deduction of as much as $100,000 when they buy luxury sport utility vehicles.
The current federal income-tax deduction for buying a new technology, 50-mpg, pollution-free, gas-electric hybrid car is $2,000, which only 2 percent of the amount of the deduction for an SUV -- and that will go down to $1,500 next year! Gas-electric hybrids (such as the Toyota Prius, Motor Trend magazine's 2004 "Car of the Year") are the car of the future and should have a 100 percent federal tax-deduction for business use (pizza delivery, taxis) or personal use. The current tax laws in the energy bill actually encourage the purchase of the gargantuan, fuel-wasting Hummer H2, which get only 8-10 miles per gallon of gas.
Even China now imposes standards for motor-vehicle fuel economy. The new standards are intended both to save energy and to compel auto makers to use hybrid engines. Many American cars do not meet these new standards for fuel economy. Meanwhile, Detroit-based automobile companies have yet to get a hybrid vehicle into their showrooms.
Thanks to a generous state tax rebate, Hawaii has the country's most successful residential solar water program. The energy bill gives homeowners a small, $1,000 federal tax credit for solar water heaters. If the federal tax credit were raised to $4,500 (the cost of a solar water heater, installed), solar heater sales would grow nationwide.
Where are America's elected leaders on this energy bill? Many, including the president, seem to be in the pockets of oil companies and their lobbyists.
If you remember 9/11, please realize we are at war for oil; if you have any concern for the environment or for the lives of our soldiers in Iraq, you should be outraged at this corrupt "increase our energy use" bill.
Tom Sebas, who lives in Honolulu, is a member of the Sierra Club.
