Improving the energy bill

The League of Women Voters of Maine agrees with your April 4 editorial, “Profiting from Kyoto”: “Companies are very receptive to energy savings ideas – from anywhere. Some of them could be from Maine.” It was good to read about the Maine companies developing energy products that can be sold not only in Maine, but also internationally.

Maine government is already saving tax dollars by reducing energy use. Maine Interfaith Power and Light is selling 100 percent Maine hydroelectric power. Interface Fabrics, which has a plant in Maine, wants to be the first international carbon-neutral company.

The debate on the Bush administration’s energy bill that started on April 5 will highlight, again, the illogical energy policy being proposed at the federal level that takes no account of the need to reduce and change our use of energy – not only to reduce pollution and adverse health effects, but also to save money.

As other nations are benefiting from 21st century new technologies, more efficient products and processes and alternative-energy fuels, the U.S. energy bill being worked on currently includes, just to name a few:

?nothing to reduce our reliance on foreign oil which is projected to increase to 80 percent by 2025;

?no increases in fuel efficiency in vehicles;

?very large subsidies to our 19th- and 20th-century oil, gas and coal industries;

?exempting oil drilling from the Clean Water Act and Clean Drinking Water Act;

?postponing implementation of Clean Air Act regulations for a decade which will have adverse impacts on Maine’s asthmatics;

?minimal incentives for increasing renewable energy fuels and improving energy efficiency and conservation;

?provisions to promote energy exploration in many ecologically sensitive areas – the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge being the most famous. (The thawing of the Arctic permafrost will significantly diminish the ability to drill and pipe the potential one-year supply of oil safely from the Arctic refuge.)

?shielding MBTE manufacturers from liability suits for their water-polluting product, costing state and local communities billions of dollars in clean-up costs.

Just to show the positive effect of good regional public energy policy, the Bangor Daily News had an article in your April 5 edition titled, “Wood Burning Electricity Plants Enjoy Resurgence.” According to your article, the resurgence is due to the requirement in Maine and other New England states for a percentage of electricity to be generated from renewable energy fuels.

These plants are located in the most economically depressed sections of Maine and employ Maine citizens. They provide a source of disposal for wood waste, sawdust and construction debris that, at the same time, produces electricity. With more than 50 percent of the nation’s electricity being generated by coal, these biomass plants provide a welcome alternative. Having a diversity of energy sources and suppliers is critical for our economic as well as national security.

We need to tell our U.S. senators and representatives that we support them as they propose less costly, more productive ways to improve our energy practices in the energy bill being heard in the U.S. Congress. By improving energy efficiency in products and raising the fuel efficiency standards of all vehicles, citizens would receive the most economic, human health and environmental benefits.

Raising fuel efficiency for vehicles not only can be done, it must be done. As Sen. Olympia Snowe wrote to me in 2003, “Even China … has moved forward … by drafting more stringent standards than the U.S. currently has in place for new vehicles-including those imported from the U.S.” And Rep. Tom Allen stated in his remarks on April 5 before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, “…We should pursue policies that will give our nation a competitive edge and provide a healthy and thus prosperous future for our children. …”

Pamela W. Person is the energy and environment director for the League of Women Voters of Maine as well as co-chair of Maine Global Climate Change Inc.