(Washington, DC) Congresswoman Brown expressed extreme displeasure at House passage of the “Gasoline for America’s Security Act,” (H.R. 3893). In response to the House bill, Congresswoman Corrine Brown made the following statement:

“The Republican leadership has decided to address the nation’s energy crisis by decimating The Clean Air Act and granting billions of dollars in tax breaks to petroleum companies, instead of providing substantive relief to alleviate our country’s long term energy needs. Instead of attempting to utilize and explore alternative energy sources or increase fuel safety standards, the habitual response of the Bush administration has been to continually attack our nation’s environmental protection laws.

With respect to the environment, perhaps most alarming in the House Republican plan is a provision in their bill designed to allow businesses to maneuver around what is known as “New Source Review.” New Source Review allows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure that the construction of new or modified factories, industrial boilers and power plants will not significantly degrade the quality of our air. To circumvent NSR, the Republican Party’s energy bill mandates that the EPA issue regulations to change the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review permit process. It also requires the EPA to use “maximum legal flexibility,” to allow energy producers to proceed with projects that improve their efficiency, irrespective of any potentially adverse environmental consequences. To me this seems like an obvious attempt to evade basic Clear Air protections.

Moreover, in addition to practically doing away with New Source Review, this bill allows the president (in consultation with the EPA and the Energy Department) to temporarily waive federal or state regulations that require the use of any special type of fuel or fuel additive to relieve an extreme “supply emergency” caused by a natural disaster. Based on the Bush administration’s environmental record thus far, I have very little confidence that their decision process to waive regulations will involve any concerns for the environment. Rather, they will likely succumb to the whims of the energy industry.

Aside from the deleterious environmental provisions in this bill, one can clearly see that H.R. 3893 is not only about debasing the environment, but also about increasing profits for the oil industry. In fact, the House recently passed a Republican led bill just two months ago that provides billions of dollars in tax breaks for fossil fuel production. One of the most salient features of H.R. 3893 is a provision entitled “risk insurance,” which in reality, is little more than an allowance for refineries to receive taxpayer subsidies. Ironically, these subsides pay oil companies for their attempts to escape legal challenges if they evade local, state and federal laws and regulations. This provision states that the Interior Department would have to pay energy conglomerates for the cost of any delay in opening a new facility if the delay is related to a lawsuit that “could not have been reasonably foreseen.” Obviously, requiring the federal government to cover the costs of delays in the opening of refineries - including court costs and lost business - sets an extremely dangerous precedent!

To conclude, even though I am thankful that the bill does not include provisions that would have lifted the federal ban on natural gas drilling off the Outer Continental Shelf in my state of Florida, I remain wholeheartedly opposed to this bill. Indeed, it does very little to offset high energy prices, nor does it do anything to address vehicle fuel-efficiency standards or explore alternative energy sources. What’s more, it does not do anything to assist Americans with the skyrocketing cost of gasoline, which ironically, is its stated purpose.”