Reply #5: BASTARDS! $88.9 billion in subsidies to industry over 10 years in the bil [View All]

[54anickel]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/20/MNGA4CBM461.DTL

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Republican leaders had promised a slimmer version of the energy bill the House has passed the last few years to avoid worsening the federal deficit. But a new analysis by a watchdog group showed that lawmakers added $35 billion in the last three weeks since the bill was introduced -- a total of $88.9 billion in subsidies to industry over 10 years in the bill.

Analysts said the extra spending was tacked on to win over wavering lawmakers or to placate parts of the energy industry. The House is scheduled to begin debating the bill today.

"It becomes a lot less about a national energy policy and more about a strategic divvying up of regional perks to secure not just enough votes to win, but to win by a landslide," said Keith Ashdown, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan group that analyzed the bill's costs.

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For example, a $125 million provision in the bill would convert a clean coal plant in Healy, Alaska, into a regular coal-fired plant because the cleaner technology was not cost-effective and the plant has been idle since 2001. The provision was requested by Alaska lawmakers.