Congress Could Mess Up A Train Wreck
James Wilson
Quote of the Day: "I've come to expect that even nobly conceived laws will be manipulated and distorted for private ends. But once in a while I hear a story that gives me the queasy feeling that I'm nowhere near cynical enough." -- Christopher Hayes, The Nation
Subject: Congress could mess up a train wreck
One intent of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was to reduce the use of fossil fuels. But now, because of this law, the paper industry is using more fossil fuels than before.
Prior to Congress deciding it could use tax policy to re-engineer America's energy use from on-high, the paper industry had been 70% fueled by something called black liquor, a natural by-product of the paper making process. In other words, the paper industry was inherently energy efficient, until Congress got involved.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized a 50-cent per gallon tax credit for mixing gasoline or diesel with an alternative fuel. To get the credit, paper companies began to mix diesel with their black liquor. In other words . . .
- The government is paying the paper industry to use a less efficient, environmentally-destructive fuel!
- The cost of this scam could reach $8 billion this year. [Source: The Nation]
Congress could mess up a train wreck.
At first glance, this appears to be an example of "unintended consequences," but this assumes we really know what Congress intended . . .
- The Energy Policy Act of 2005 was 1,273 pages.
- The House passed the bill just one day after it was filed.
- The Senate passed it one day after that.
It's impossible to believe that any member of Congress had the chance to read and completely understand the bill. This means that those who voted for it didn't really know what the intention was. Someone could have wanted the paper industry to have a hidden subsidy. But if the Read the Bills Act had been in force, the Energy Policy Act would have been . . .
- Read before a quorum in both chambers, giving all members a chance to review it thoroughly
- Posted on the Internet for seven days before a vote, so the public could review it too
Someone might have seen that this legislation had the potential to cause the reverse of its supposed purpose.
Without the Read the Bills Act, messed up train wrecks like this are bound to continue. In the past two weeks, the House passed 23 bills totaling 209 pages, while the Senate passed 5 bills and 99 pages.
- We won't know until it's too late how many messed up train wrecks are hidden in these bills,
- And this will continue to be the case until we pass the Read the Bills Act.
Use your personal comments to complain about . . .
- The 1,273 Energy Policy Act that no member of Congress had the time to read or understand
- The multi-billion dollar subsidy to the paper industry that rewards them for using more fossil fuels
To beat the 31,730 messages to Congress the Downsize DC Army sent in April, we need Downsizers to send 1,570 messages today. Send your message at DownsizeDC.org's Read the Bills campaign page.
Please also add your website or blog to the Read the Bills Act Coalition. In return, we'll link to your site and mention it in a Dispatch like this one, reaching over 25,000 subscribers. Here are the instructions.
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James Wilson
Assistant to the President
DownsizeDC.org
P.S. The list of bills Congress passed April 20-May 1 can be found below my signature in the blog version of this Dispatch.
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