Bush's Energy Disaster

"The long-delayed energy bill signed into law last week will wreak havoc on the planet while padding the pockets of the oil industry.

"As the Senate cast its votes on the energy bill last Friday, giving Republicans a little legislative victory before everyone skipped town for the summer, Bush issued a congratulatory statement. 'I applaud Congress,' he said, 'for a bill that will help secure our energy future and reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy.' A nice sentiment -- except that 'securing our energy future' is the one thing the bill won't do.

"Then again, that was never the intention. This was Bush's baby from the start, the fruition of Cheney's infamous task force, to which he invited every industry honcho he could find to write their own tickets right into the country's energy policy. After that, of course, it was larded with extra tax breaks and subsidies, like $500 million in deep-water drilling that will likely wind up in Tom DeLay's hometown, Sugar Land, and billions more that will drain straight into industry coffers.

"This at a time when high oil prices are sending industry margins soaring: Exxon-Mobil's third quarter last year was the most profitable corporate earnings in history. Boone Pickens, head of BP Capital Management, a billion-dollar hedge fund that makes people wealthy trading energy futures and related investments, sums up the high times like so: 'I've never had so much fun in my life.'"
AlterNet