I feel like I should at least acknowledge the ridiculous energy bill just passed by the House — you know, the one that gives $14.5 billion in tax breaks to energy companies that are already making record profits and paying little tax, but doesn’t even touch the issue of gas-guzzling vehicles.
This bill doesn’t do anything to curb our demand for oil, foreign or domestic, nor does it do anything to conserve energy. It does continue the “government of the people, for the corporations” trend that has been going on for some time now.
But hey, we’ll get an extended daylight savings time out of it.
Every news story I’ve heard or read today about this silliness is pointing out the lack of any real energy-saving legislation in this bill. Now, this could just be that “liberal media” they keep warning us about… or it could be that people are starting to get sick and tired of our government being the lapdogs of corporations instead of the people.
I mean, who else would pass a bill to “lower” prescription drug costs without asking the drug companies to lower their prices? Who would write energy legislation at a time of high fuel costs and record energy company profits and then give the energy companies tax breaks? Who would craft a bill ostensibly to find a way to lower our oil consumption, but not tell car companies to make their vehicles more fuel efficient?
I know I shouldn’t be so incredulous, this is exactly the sort of thing we all expected ever since Dick Cheney allowed the energy companies to write their own energy legislation and kept it secret.
