...looks like a disaster. I'll look for the original bill and post it here. Not surprising an excerpt would be taken from "the fox in the hen house's" site.."The 1,725-page bill came after years of debate over a national energy plan, which has not been renewed for 10 years. Critics said the new measure would do nothing to reduce U.S. oil consumption or dampen high energy prices.
The average retail gasoline price per gallon in the U.S. was $2.289 on Monday, according to the Department of Energy.Opponents also called the bill a boon to the energy industry.
"This bill is packed with royalty relief, tax breaks, loan guarantees for the wealthiest energy companies in America, even as they are reporting the largest quarterly profits of any corporations in the history of the United States," complained Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass. "It is politically and morally wrong."
"When it comes to solving America's pressing energy problems, this bill can only be classified as a miserable failure," said Anna Aurilio, legislative director of the U.S.Public Interest Research Group. "This bill fails to reduce America's dependence on oil, fails to address the threat of global warming, fails to make any new investments in clean energy, and by the president's own admission, fails to help consumers at the gas pump."
"The bill also paves the way for future drilling off currently protected coastlines and preempts states' rights in siting dangerous liquefied natural gas (search) facilities and transmission lines," Aurilio added.
The bill would funnel $2.7 billion in tax breaks to the oil and gas industries and provide additional support in the form of royalty relief, including $500 million over 10 years for research into drilling in extremely deep areas of the Gulf of Mexico.
The bill no longer includes a House-authored provision that would have permitted oil and gas development in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (search). ANWR drilling may still be authorized during the fall's budget reconciliation process.
Lawmakers agreed to triple the amount of corn-based ethanol in gasoline to 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. That provision appeases farm state lawmakers as well as those looking for renewable fuel sources.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,163960,00.html