Policy & Lobbying

Monday, in a statement made from the White House Rose Garden, President Bush lifted the executive ban on offshore oil drilling that his father put in place when he was president.

Drilling on the outer continental shelf (OCS) is being falsely pitched as a short term, immediate fix to high gas prices, when in fact any resulting leases will not be in production until 2017 and relief at the gas station will be minimal. Most estimates put the price decrease at around four cents per gallon.

Fortunately, our coasts are still protected by a legislative moratorium. Although Big Oil allies in Congress would like to do away with that too. Legislation proposing to lift the moratorium could come in the form of a stand-alone bill or an amendment to any number of land or energy bills.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has introduced an energy bill that would open the OCS to drilling and also gives states the right to reject the sale of leases off their coasts. LCV strongly opposes this bill for many reasons, including that spills or leaks may occur off the coast of one state can easily travel elsewhere by way of wind and ocean currents. It should also be obvious that marine animals, including economically valuable fish species, do not respect state boundaries. Most importantly, the Energy Information Administration predicts that drilling on the OCS will not reach peak production until 2025 and when it does it will account for less than one percent of daily demand in the United States. Protecting our rich coastal ecosystems should take priority over such minimal supply gains.

Republican Senators Stevens and Murkowski of Alaska also plan to introduce language either as a standalone bill or an amendment that would open 1.5 million acres on the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge. LCV also strongly opposes drilling in the Arctic Refuge.

Newt Gingrich is expected to drop off a petition on Capitol Hill this week with around 1.2 million signatures asking Congress, “to lower gas prices by authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves”. In comparison, Governors of six coastal states, representing 65.8 million constituents, have asked Congress not to lift the OCS moratorium. Gingrich has been leading a campaign entitled “Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.” This campaign has been funded by Big Oil for Big Oil. For more information see the article, ‘Destroy Here? Destroy Now? Gone Forever?’ at Alaska Wilderness League and follow the link to their fact sheet (www.alaskawild.org).

More drilling is not part of the global warming solution and can only increase our dependence on fossil fuels. While gas prices remain high it is expected that proposals will continue from pro-drilling members of Congress, but LCV is working hard to point out commonsense solutions like releasing oil from the 700 million barrels in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and continue investments in alternative energy sources.

Bush Lifts Ban on Offshore Drilling, but Does Nothing to Save Americans Money at the Pump

Gas prices have reached absurdly high levels, everyone can agree on that. The solution to this national emergency, however, is a debate that has divided this Congress along party lines and distinguished environmental champions from profit seeking oil cronies.

President Bush has made his position clear over these past 8 years, and today he takes a step further in support of Big Oil to repeal the executive ban put into place by his father on offshore drilling.

His misguided resolution is one that has grave long-term effects, but fails to deliver any short-term relief for Americans at the pump.

The help that our nation needs to get out of this energy crisis comes in a plan backed by facts that will release Big Oil’s strangling grip on our wallets and protect us and our environment from the harmful consequences of over drilling.
The reality is that America’s supply (less than 3% of world oil reserves) can't possibly keep up with our demand (25% of world oil consumption). A few drops of oil, up to a decade away from making it to market, cannot alleviate our pain at the pump.
As it is, suppliers of oil and gas are sitting on almost 70 million acres of proven reserves, over 40 million of which are offshore. The have permission to drill there, but aren’t. As long as gas prices continue to rise, so does the value of those reserves.

America needs consumer choices, innovations to fuel our ingenuity, and alternatives that will cut our addiction to oil and put jobs and money back into the hands of working families. Short term relief will come in eliminating the record profits of Big Oil, cutting their money saving subsidies, and giving rebates to those who have been hurting most from high gas prices.

Stop rising costs at the pump by knowing which solution will deliver results. Protect our environment from irresponsible drilling, and rescue America from our energy crisis.

To read the AP article on Bush's lift of the executive ban on offshore drilling, which cites LCV President Gene Karpinski, go here.

Bush plan "a joke"

Last week, President Bush strolled out to the Rose Garden, calmly approached the podium and proudly announced just what he planned to do about climate change before he leaves office: absolutely nothing.

Yet somehow, his empty words have been a hot topic of debate. I really do wish the media would stop treating this as if we need to discuss whether or not he actually did something. Well, he didn’t, and even the slightest bit of scrutiny proves it. A few key points on the President’s speech:

1) The President’s plan is a joke. To recap, President Bush aims to level off US global warming pollution emissions by 2025. While that may sound like a plan to the casual observer, trust me, it doesn’t do anything. While Bush routinely ignores or denies the science and data coming out of EPA, one particular release he may have wanted to pay attention to (especially considering it came just days before his release) was the recent announcement that US GHG emissions decreased in 2006 by 1.1%, which EPA attributes to a combination of factors including a warmer than average winter and high fuel prices. So, it appears that we already surpassed the President’s 2025 goal two years ago. Upon learning this information, one is left wondering just what the President might feel inclined to do. Well, Mr. President, any ideas?


2) The President tried to claim credit for an Energy Bill passed late last year when in reality he did little more than issue veto threats to stronger versions of the bill that passed the House before the ink had even dried on the vote tallies. When all was said and done, two important policies were left on the cutting room floor, both specifically tagged by the Bush Administration as veto-worthy. The first was a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) that would require 15% of our energy to be produced by clean, renewable energy by 2020. The second was a repeal of taxpayers subsidies to big oil companies that even President Bush said were unnecessary ( way back when oil was only $55 per barrel mind you). Don’t get me wrong, passing the first increase in vehicle miles per gallon standards in 32 years was a huge victory, not to mention the numerous efficiency policies and incentives that will save consumers bundles on their energy bills, but this victory happened in spite of the President, not thanks to him.

3) The President’s criteria for climate legislation are the same criteria he has stuck to in the first 7-years of his Administration. Basically, let technology drive everything and don’t hurt the economy. Sadly, the President has proven a very poor practitioner of either one given his need to preserve and even increase subsidies to 19th Century energy technologies and his complete denial of what constitutes a strong, healthy economy. While technology and innovation are clearly a piece of the solution, Bush’s words strike even more hollow when he refuses to shift taxpayer money away from big oil companies and send it to renewable energy and energy efficiency. The President also chooses to use the same old scare tactics about the costs of taking on global warming claiming economic Armageddon. Here is my question: What would be a bigger economic stimulus package than fundamentally recreating the ways we produce and use energy in this country? Moreover, our economy has always been driven by innovation, not by holding on to dirty technologies of the past. If the President is serious about investing in new technology, then he needs to do it and not use the power of his office to keep us dangerously addicted to oil and other fossil fuels.

Here’s the bottom line. The scientific community is telling us that global emissions need to peak around 2015, ten years before the President’s goal of ‘stabilizing’ US emissions. The good news is that we can do this and there is plenty of evidence to prove it. Sadly, this Administration has little use for facts or data or logic or reason for that matter. How much longer will we have to wait for this Administration to come around and realize that global warming is real and that we need to act?

As Thomas Paine once opined, “Time makes more converts than reason.” We are in dire need of more reason because we are running out of time.

Bush’s Confession: Empty Words on Global Warming

LCV Press Secretary Josh McNeil has written another astute press release:

In response to President Bush’s Rose Garden address on global warming, Gene Karpinski, President of the League of Conservation Voters, issued the following statement:

"Earlier this year, the Vatican announced that polluting is a sin, and we had hoped that Pope Benedict could convince President Bush to take meaningful action to reduce global warming,” Karpinski said. "The President may have confessed that global warming is a problem, but his inadequate proposals show that he'd rather kiss the rings of oil executives than listen to the Holy Father and every reputable climate scientist in the world. This proposal is too little, too late to effectively reverse global warming and too little, too late to save this President's record of failure."

Oil Tycoon Feels Winds of Change

Legendary oilman T Boone Pickens founded a Texan oil company in 1956 and since has built it into a fortune worth $3bn.

However his latest investment has nothing to do with black gold. Over the next few years he plans to erect a string of 2,700 wind turbines across Texas, a plot that will be five times larger than the world’s current record-holding wind farm. His long term plans are even more impressive: he envisions an army of wind farms along America’s great plains, and a sea of solar panels running from Texas to southern California.

Anyone who thought that all billionaire oil executives were pro-Bush should hear Pickens fume over the president’s apathy towards the energy crisis: "George Bush has done nothing. Nothing. Every guy that ran for president clear back to Nixon said he would make us energy independent, but not one goddamned thing has been done. Zero. The biggest problem facing the United States in the next 50 years is energy and nobody has come up with a solution."

Now that’s a maverick. Read the Guardian article on Pickens here .

EPA Administrator Travels Halfway Around the World; Gets Nowhere

What do you do when Nancy Pelosi, environmental organizations, and 13 different states are angry with you? If you’re the head of the EPA, you hide out Down Under.

Over the Easter Break, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson took 11 staffers plus security to Australia to tour farms and water treatment plants at a total cost of $280,000 (half the budget of EPA’s annual travel allowance.) The trip was supposed to promote environmental collaboration between the U.S. and Australia, but it turns out a simple flight to California would have been a lot more productive.

Barbara Boxer, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has expressed grave frustration with Johnson for failing to testify about global warming before her committee. This would be an opportune time to explain why the EPA won’t allow California to set its own carbon cap targets. "If your goal is to learn about actions to address global warming, I suggest that you visit California, which has moved ahead aggressively with greenhouse gas controls," Boxer wrote to Johnson. Moreover, last week 18 disgruntled states and 11 environmental organizations sued the EPA for failing to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks a year after the Supreme Court ruled that they had the power to do so.

Meanwhile the Bush Administration proposes to slash the EPA’s budget by $300 million for 2009. This includes massive cuts to enforcement budgets (funds to penalize polluters), research and development of technologies that address global warming, and funding for EPA’s Superfund site cleanups (which is already half of what it was in the 1990’s.)

Yet instead of distancing himself from Bush’s policies, Johnson vacationed in Australia with U.S. Ambassador Robert McCallum, an old friend of Bush’s who represented Australia’s anti-Kyoto stance before the election of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Needless to say, the trip probably didn’t enlighten Johnson’s global warming perspective much.

To improve America’s environmental policies, Stephen Johnson would have saved a lot of money, time and - last but not least - carbon dioxide emissions if he had simply showed up at Nancy Pelosi’s office.

Big Oil Favorite Walberg Drills for Campaign Cash with Oilman Cheney

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following Dick Cheney’s appearance in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District to raise money for Representative Tim Walberg’s re-election campaign, LCV President Gene Karpinski issued a statement regarding the first-term congressman’s poor record on clean energy legislation.

“In his first year in Congress, Rep. Walberg sided with polluters, developers and the oil industry, so it’s no surprise that he called on the patron of Big Oil -- Vice President Dick Cheney -- to appear at a fund-raising event.”

Cheney was the architect of the taxpayer giveaways to Big Oil. In 2005, he and the energy industry’s lobbyists huddled behind closed doors and wrote an energy bill which gave billions in tax breaks to the oil companies while they enjoyed record corporate profits. Last year, Congressman Walberg voted to keep the corporate gravy train rolling — even as the price of a barrel of crude oil topped an all-time high of $100. No wonder Walberg called on Dick Cheney and his well-heeled friends to return the favor by making a stop in Southern Michigan to raise money.

At a time when people are hurting from an economic slow-down caused in part because American consumers are paying an arm and a leg for dirty fossil fuels, we should be investing in the clean, renewable energy of the future and the green jobs that will be created with that investment. But Walberg has turned away from his constituents and chosen to become a darling of the Bush-Cheney Administration by consistently voting against the environment and contrary to the health and safety of the people of Michigan.

A look at LCV’s 2007 National Environmental Scorecard shows Rep. Walberg consistently adopts the failed energy strategy of the Bush-Cheney Administration. He voted against fuel efficiency standards, against a Renewable Electricity Standard, against mandatory limits on global warming pollution and in favor of liquid coal and oil subsidies last year.

Walberg’s 2007 score: a pathetic 5%.

“We must develop a long-term energy policy that moves away from failed Bush Administration policies and meets the needs of Michigan while protecting our planet from the devastating effects of global warming," Karpinski said. “Rep. Walberg is clearly not up for the challenge, especially since he’s proud to have Vice President Cheney at his side during the 2008 re-election campaign.”

"A Bridge to Nowhere"

Yesterday, LCV President Gene Karpinski issued the following statement in reaction to the proposed federal budget released by the Bush Administration:

“It is often said that the president’s annual budget proposal is a road map to our nation's future. If that is the case, President Bush's budget leads us down the same dead end street when it comes to energy and environmental policy. By slashing energy efficiency programs and increasing taxpayer giveaways to the dirty fossil fuel industries of the past, President Bush’s budget is worse than a bridge to the 20th century’s energy sources: it is a bridge to nowhere."

For the rest of his statement, see the press release.

Romney Flip-Flops on California Emissions Waiver

LOS ANGELES, CA – During last night's debate, Governor Romney stated that he would allow California and other states to implement tough global warming measures including ones that regulate emissions from vehicles. The Bush Administration is currently blocking these states by refusing to grant a waiver.

Romney has often appeared to 'customize' his positions on these issues for his audience and the next election. Maybe he thought he was still governor of Massachusetts when he supported tough emissions standards and forgot that he had changed his position on emissions and fuel efficiency when campaigning in the Michigan primary. Maybe he was hoping that California and Gov. Schwarzenegger, who was sitting in the front row last night, didn't hear what he said in Michigan. We wonder if he released this statement to news outlets outside the 313 area code.

Click here to read the complete article from LCV.org

Hello from Hollywood!

LA is buzzing. No -- not because of Britney's latest trouble.

On the TV, radio and in the streets, people are talking about tonight's debate between Senators Clinton and Obama. It's just a few hours away from now and their supporters are starting to gather.

LCV is here, too. Stay tuned for more in this space.

At last night's debate, all the Republican candidates parted ways with the Bush Administration and said they would allow California and other states to implement their own global warming plans and tougher auto emissions. We hope more discussion of this important issue is to come tonight.

Here are some photos from Los Angeles

LCV responds to Bush's final State of the Union

LCV President Gene Karpinski issued the following statement in response to President Bush’s State of the Union address:

“After seven years of a presidential assault on environmental protections, of siding with Big Oil over consumers and the environment, of refusing to address the global warming crisis and actively thwarting state efforts to do so, the President promised more of the same tonight,” said League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski. “The best thing about President Bush’s State of the Union speech tonight is that it is his last.”