Leading up to a massive oil spill; the search for alternatives

[Zummie]

2001

Cheney’s secret dirty energy task force crafts national energy policy. The Bush administration released the National Energy Policy Report on May 16. President Bush appointed Vice President Cheney—who gave up his title as CEO of oil and gas company Halliburton to take on his new role—with developing a new energy policy swiftly after taking office. But Cheney’s relationship with Halliburton did not end. Cheney was kept on the company’s payroll after retirement and retained around 430,000 shares of Halliburton stock.

The task force report was based on recommendations provided to Cheney from coal, oil, and nuclear companies and related trade groups—many of which were major contributors to Bush’s presidential campaign and to the Republican Party. Oil companies—including BP, the National Mining Association, and the American Petroleum Institute—secretly met with the Cheney and his staff as part of a task force to develop the country’s energy policy.

The proposal clearly represented the interests of dirty industry, including opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and encouraging oil and gas production, coal output, and the development of biofuels and nuclear power.

Only 7 of the 105 recommendations in the plan involved renewable energy. Cheney’s task force report proposed funding the development of clean energy technologies by opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling and earmarking $1.2 billion of bid bonuses from leases in ANWR. The administration was clearly not serious about ending our addiction to oil. Less than two months earlier the president proposed cutting millions from renewable energy programs. The New York Times reported at the time that, “The plan does little for efficiency or renewable energy.”

Renewable energy budget cuts. Bush released the fiscal year 2002 budget on April 9 that included steep cuts for clean energy research and development: “Solar and renewable energy R&D would drop by more than a third; nuclear energy R&D would be almost halved; and energy conservation R&D would fall by nearly 25 percent.”

House energy bill includes $33.5 billion in tax breaks for dirty energy. The House of Representatives on August 2 passed the Securing America’s Future Energy Act, H.R. 4. This special-interest energy bill included $33.5 billion in tax breaks and other incentives over 10 years for the power industry aimed at increasing oil and gas exploration, developing new coal-burning technologies, and promoting nuclear energy. The bill also opened up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas exploration, a top Bush administration priority. The bill reflected White House priorities laid out in the 2001 plan. An amendment by Reps. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and Ed Markey (D-MA) to raise fuel efficiency standards for sport utility vehicles and other light trucks was defeated.

2002

Senate clean energy bill fails. The Senate began acting on a bill proposed in a previous Congress that would have raised fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks and included more incentives for energy conservation and alternative fuels, but no Arctic Refuge drilling. The bill passed the Senate but was not reconciled with the House bill that closely followed the Cheney dirty energy task force proposal.

Renewable energy budget cuts. President Bush released his FY 2003 budget on February 4, which devoted unprecedented funding for research and development at the Department of Defense and the National Institute of Health. It meanwhile reduced research and development funding for biomass, geothermal, and solar energy programs.

2003

House energy bill includes $23.5 billion in tax breaks for dirty energy. The House passed another oil industry handout energy bill, H.R. 6, on March 11 that would allow oil and gas leasing in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, let companies avoid federal royalty payments on natural gas taken from the Gulf of Mexico, and provide for expedited environmental impact studies. The legislation would hand out $23.5 billion over 10 years in tax breaks to increase oil and gas production and $5.4 billion in subsidies and loan guarantees. The Senate once again passed the 2002 energy bill. The conference report to reconcile the two bills included the administration’s dirty energy policies and did nothing for consumers or clean energy; it was approved by the House but was blocked by a filibuster in the Senate. Yet the Senate still approved billions of dollars in tax credits for the oil and gas, coal, and nuclear industries.

More renewable energy budget cuts. President Bush’s FY 2004 budget once again reduced funding for solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass totaling more than $25 million in cuts. The fossil fuel budget increased around $10 million over 2003 levels.

2004

House passes bill allowing companies to build oil refineries in minority communities. The United States Refinery Revitalization Act passed the House on June 16, but was never made into law. The bill would have made it easier to build or expand oil refineries in areas that the League of United Latin American Citizens argued are “heavily minority populated and already disproportionately impacted by refineries and other industries.” The League and the National Hispanic Environmental Council opposed the bill because of such environmental justice issues.

2005

More renewable energy budget cuts. President Bush’s FY 2006 budget once again cut energy efficiency and renewable energy programs at the Department of Energy by about 4 percent; cuts totaled nearly $50 million.

Energy bill includes $27 billion for dirty energy. President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 on August 8. The bill closely resembled Cheney’s 2001 plan and gave $27 billion to coal, oil and gas, and nuclear, and only $6.4 billion for renewable energy. Amendments in the House and Senate to raise fuel efficiency standards for vehicles failed. Amendments in the House to remove provisions limiting state and local roles in the siting of oil refineries also failed, as did measures to ensure environmental justice for minority and low-income communities. Senate amendments requiring a renewable energy standard of 10 percent by 2020 and addressing global warming through mandatory limits on carbon emissions were dropped during conference.

Regulations permit oil and gas industry to regulate itself. The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service—the agency responsible for managing oil and gas resources on the Outer Continental Shelf and collecting royalties from companies—decided in 2005 that oil companies, rather than the government, were in the best position to determining their operations’ environmental impacts. This meant that there was no longer any need for an environmental impact analysis for deepwater drilling, though an earlier draft stated that such drilling experience was limited. In fact, MMS “repeatedly ignored warnings from government scientists about environmental risks in its push to approve energy exploration activities quickly, according to numerous documents and interviews.” And an interior general analysis even found that between 2005 and 2007 MMS officials let the oil industry to fill out their own inspection reports.

2006

Bush: “America is addicted to oil.” President Bush states in the State of the Union Address on January 31 that, “America is addicted to oil.”

A House-passed bill allows drilling in Arctic Refuge. The House passed the American-Made Energy and Good Jobs Act on May 25, which would open oil leases on the coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—an area of 1.5 million acres. The Arctic Refuge development was once again blocked in the Senate because drilling proponents were unable to muster the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

More budget cuts for renewable energy. President Bush’s 2007 FY budget cut funding for energy conservation by 6.3 percent to $289 million and stopped funding for the geothermal program—although Congress later restored some of this geothermal funding.

2007

Government agency failed to collect more than $865 million in revenues. Investigators from the Interior Department determined that a “top Interior Department official was told nearly three years ago about a legal blunder that allowed drilling companies to avoid billions of dollars in payments for oil and gas pumped from publicly owned waters.” The report found that the Minerals Management Service could have could have collected $865 million in the previous three years alone.

Budget cuts for renewable energy. President Bush’s fiscal year 2008 budget proposed to cut research funds for efficiency and renewable energy by 16 percent, eliminate them for geothermal energy, and leave funding for solar stagnant.

Bush administration opposes expansion of renewable energy. President Bush also threatened to veto the Energy Independence and Security Act because it included a renewable electricity standard and renewable energy tax credits funded by the elimination of many tax subsidies for major oil companies totaling approximately $13 billion. Congress eliminated these provisions from the bill, which President Bush then signed. Bush blocked a request the same day he signed the bill from California and a dozen other states that wanted to adopt global warming pollution standards that would have enhanced fuel economy and saved oil.

2008

Budget cuts for renewable energy. President Bush proposes a 27 percent cut for Department of Energy efficiency and renewable energy programs in the FY 2008 budget.

Bush administration opposes expansion of renewable energy. President Bush opposed House passage of the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act, H.R. 5351, as advised on February 28.

Bush lifts moratorium on offshore drilling. Bush lifted the executive moratorium on offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts on July 14. This moratorium was put in place in 1990 by Pres. George H.W. Bush after the Valdez spill. Bush then called on Congress to lift its own annual ban on drilling, as John McCain embraced “drill, baby, drill” that year.

Government agency accepted gifts and engaged in fraternizing and illicit activities. A June 2008 interior general report found that Minerals Management Service officials accepted gifts, engaged in drug use and illicit sex with employees from energy firms, and showed favoritism in handling contracts.

Gasoline prices soared to $3.31 per gallon, and oil set an all-time record high price of $147 per barrel in

July 2008.

[Tricia Lynn]

We realize that everything that is wrong during the Obama White House is a result of Bush. Your President reminds us of it everyday.

Hey , while you are scouring the internet for info, can you please find some proof that Obama is actually an American citizen, you seem to only find facts.

Also, who gives a shit !!! There is a catastrophic disaster in the gulf, it doesn't really matter who's fault it is, we need to fix it for the well being of EVERYONE IN THE WORLD !!

[jazzrockskier]

Zummie...your profile says your are a nuclear physicist? Do you design Reactors for clean energy, build WMD's or just teach at some college looking for DOE grants? Wind and solar power will only work 24/7 with massive banks of storage batteries built with lead or other heavy metals and corrosive chemicals. Nice things in a landfill. Remember BP gave the Obama campaign almost $90K, more than any other candidate.

[Zummie]

Remember BP gave the Obama campaign almost $90K, more than any other candidate.

Such an idiot...here are some facts.

1. The oil company's political contributions went 70% republicans and 30% Dems.

2. The oil companies gave almost 3 times more to McCain than Obama.

3. Yes, BP did give more to Obama than McCain BUT what they gave amounted to less than 1/10th of 1% of the money he got. Do you actually think this bought them anything?

Think about this....how was it possible for a black man, who may not have even been born here, with a Muslim name AFTER 9/11, to win the Presidency by a wider margin than Bush did against Gore AND Carey, COMBINED??????

Yes, you can keep telling yourself that Acorn fixed the election or that the majority of Americans are stupid but then you would just be an idiot yourself who refuses to face the facts.

The FACT is that a Black man, who may not have even been born here, with a Muslim name AFTER 9/11, WON by a huge majority ONLY because the Republicans f-cked up this country to unimaginable proportions. Keep deceiving yourself with other excuses and avoid the truth, after all, Republicans playing lose with the truth is what got Obama elected.

Bottom line is that every single person that I know that voted for Obama in 08 is planning on doing the same in 2012 and every single person who did not vote for him is planing on doing the same. My guess is that the results will be the same since those that voted for Obama well outnumbered those that didn't.

[chumslicker27]

It was a white womb... Her name is Ms. Ann

Hes a beach boy from Honolulu...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuEc-nFULY8

[Robja]

Obama got the anti bush vote plus the young liberal white vote and the black vote from those that never voted in their lives. I early voted in that election and the morning i voted a church van unloaded people they just registered and fed a free breakfast at the poll to vote.

[seapower]

in different neighborhood's, It's next to impossible here to find anyone that actually did vote for him now. Sorta like Bill Clinton all over again, somebody had to vote for him. One problem that I see is the folk's that vote for this type (or Clinton) of President don't contribute anything to this society. They're just looking for more free stuff. I seem to remember quite alot of "now that Obama's in we won't have to pay for.......". Maybe we should add a new requirement to be able to vote (other than being a citizen), how about if you had to bring your tax return with you to the poll's? The "leaches" in my opinion put Mr Obama where he's at today. Call it what you will, JMO. Frank

[Zummie]

Ya, those Warren Buffet and Bill Gates types who supported Obama sure don't contribute. Now, who you all gonna blame when Obama wins re-election?

[seapower]

but Bill Gates and Warren Buffet don't live around here either. I don't exactly follow what they're doing either, we stopped hanging out just before the election. It's a shame I'm of the working middle class. Frank

[marine4003]

45% approval rating,and theres a low pressure system entering the gulf..slick is reaching the loop current,meeting tonite at HGTC to discuss disaster plan for when oil hits the
Carolinas, yea,he'll be remembered as the president who didnt react fast enough while his agencys squabbled over who's in charge,and presided over the worst ecological disaster in the history of the US.. dont get out your party hat there zumm..he's toast. And rightfully so..he's all mouth.
kinda like someone else 'round these parts