affordable, and reliable energy, this regressive bill would offer massive subsidies to the fossil fuel and nuclear industries while allowing giant energy corporations to gobble up our public utilities for profit. We must put a stop to this manic giveaway to big business!

This backwards, misguided, industry-designed bill includes the following provisions:

- Repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA), a vital electricity consumer protection, which would allow for the expansion of deregulation and more Enron-style schemes;

- Authorization of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Nuclear Power 2010 program to spur the development of new nuclear power plants;

- Over $2 billion for research and development into nuclear power generation and risky waste reprocessing;

- Authorization of $1.1 billion for a nuclear-hydrogen cogeneration project to create hydrogen fuel using nuclear power, a travesty of clean energy goals;

- Extension of liability protections for nuclear plant operators through the reauthorization of the Price-Anderson Act, covering reactors licensed for the next 20 years;

- Billions in tax breaks and subsidies to the lucrative oil and gas industry.

Meanwhile, the bill lacks an essential "Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS)" that would require utilities to phase in energy generation capacity from renewable sources such as wind turbines and solar panels. Moreover, the DOE is pushing conferees to insert language into the bill that would reclassify much of its high-level waste as "low-level," thereby absolving the government from its responsibility to properly contain and isolate this dangerous waste!

Contact your senators and urge them oppose the energy bill!

CALL the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be transferred to the office of your senator. If your senator or representative is a member of the energy bill conference committee, it is especially important that you affirm your opposition to this energy policy. For a list of the members of the committee, go here: http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/electricity/energybill/articles.cfm?ID=10428.

MORE INFORMATION

To send a FREE FAX to your representatives in Congress and find a link to a page where you'll be presented with a wealth of helpful information on the energy bill, go to our ACTION ALERT Web page at: http://www.stopenergybill.org.

EVEN THE INFLUENTIAL NEW YORK TIMES has opined against the energy bill. Read their editorial here: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/29/opinion/29MON1.html.

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-Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program

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