Posted on 07/31/2005 5:45:59 AM PDT by cloud8
Pardon us for not cheering the energy bill now on a fast track to President Bush's desk. The $14.5 billion in pork-barrel tax breaks far outweighs the few good things in it.
An estimated 58 percent of the tax breaks go to coal, oil, gas, electric utilities and nuclear power - needed or not. Another 36 percent is aimed at energy efficiency, renewable sources and cleaner cars like the new gasoline-electric hybrids - whether needed or not.
Some provisions are perverse. Why give tax credits for cars with waiting lists of customers eager to purchase them - such as the new hybrids? Auto makers can't keep enough of them on the lots already.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) did manage to get a monthlong extension of daylight-saving time (beginning three weeks earlier in the spring and extending one week later in the fall). But even Markey called much of the rest of the bill "socialism."
What made passage possible was the omission of a House-passed provision that would have immunized manufacturers of the gasoline additive MTBE (now being phased out) from product liability lawsuits arising from groundwater pollution. It seems unfair to assert the product was defective when Congress effectively required its use in the first place, but an industry report that 96 percent of cleanup costs already are covered may limit plaintiff lawyer windfalls.
The bill repeals the requirement to use oxygen-containing chemicals such as MTBE in certain areas of the nation. New formulas for gasoline meant it was doing little to help clean the air. This is hardly progress: The bill requires a doubling of the use of ethanol (subsidized, of course!) as an additive, a costly and environmentally dubious payoff to farmers whose corn is the major ethanol source.
The good things in the bill - for instance, federal oversight of liquefied natural gas terminals and mandatory standards for operation of electric transmission lines - could have been passed separately long ago. Ah, but that's not the way Congress does things, now is it? We hope we never see a bill like this again.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) did manage to get a monthlong extension of daylight-saving time (beginning three weeks earlier in the spring and extending one week later in the fall).
Just think of all the computers which automatically change over to Daylight/standard time which will not now. Someone will have to write updates for all those operating systems...Some systems will likely not be readily upgradeable. And this saves what???
You got Markey?, well, I have Willy Bellyhunt
This is Markey's greatest accomplishment in his 31 year career in the House.* It will affect the lives of every American. Think of that!
Personally, I hate DST. But if one, ONE kid is injured or, God help us, killed crossing the street while walking to school in the dark, his blood will be on Markey's hands.
* Markey's only other accomplishment. He was responsible for the disastrous telecom bill that deregulated cable and raised everyone's rates in the early 90s when he was subcommittee chairman.
Here's some reasoning on the energy savings ...
http://tf.nist.gov/general/daylightsavingtime.html
One of the biggest reasons we change our clocks to Daylight Saving Time (DST) is that it saves energy. Energy use and the demand for electricity for lighting our homes is directly connected to when we go to bed and when we get up. Bedtime for most of us is late evening through the year. When we go to bed, we turn off the lights and TV.
In the average home, 25 percent of all the electricity we use is for lighting and small appliances, such as TVs, VCRs and stereos. A good percentage of energy consumed by lighting and appliances occurs in the evening when families are home. By moving the clock ahead one hour, we can cut the amount of electricity we consume each day.
Studies done by the U.S. Department of Transportation show that we trim the entire country's electricity usage by about one percent EACH DAY with Daylight Saving Time.
Daylight Saving Time "makes" the sun "set" one hour later and therefore reduces the period between sunset and bedtime by one hour. This means that less electricity would be used for lighting and appliances late in the day.
We also use less electricity because we are home fewer hours during the "longer" days of spring and summer. Most people plan outdoor activities in the extra daylight hours. When we are not at home, we don't turn on the appliances and lights. A poll done by the U.S. Department of Transportation indicated that Americans liked Daylight Saving Time because "there is more light in the evenings / can do more in the evenings."
Daylight Saving Time also saves a small amount of energy in the morning when we rise. Studies show that 70 percent of all Americans rise prior to 7 a.m. during the work week. During the summer months, sunrise is very early in the morning, so most people will wake after the sun rises. Because the sun is up, we will turn on fewer lights in our homes. Thus, we actually use less energy in the morning.
So, we save energy in both the evening and the morning because we use less electricity for lighting and appliances.
In the winter, the afternoon Daylight Saving Time advantage is offset by the morning's need for more lighting. In spring and fall, the advantage is less than one hour. So, Daylight Saving Time saves energy for lighting in all seasons of the year except for the four darkest months of winter (November, December, January and February) when the afternoon advantage is offset by the need for lighting because of late sunrise.
Of course, the Boston Herald thinks the only good things were the elements that contained more "federal oversight" and more "mandatory standards".
Daylight savings times screws me up for 6 months, then it's time to get screwed up all over again.
This must be a plan to keep us unbalanced. Farmers have electricity now, darn it.
I guess being in Northwest North Dakota, I have a latitude bias. By winter, it will only be daylight from about 8:30 AM to 6 PM, in summer, dawn comes around 5 AM and dark as late as 11:30 PM. To me, changing the time change is just a pain in the hindparts, compounded by living in one time zone and (mostly) working in another.
Executives from ARCO have admitted under oath that it was the petrochemical industry that pushed MTBE in the first place, as a response to the first oxygenate proposal from ADM (using ethanol). The oil industry's major stockholders have used their tax-exempt "charitable" foundations to fund the Natural Resource Defense Council as a front to get preferential regulations through government agencies. Their lawyers, hired as administrators, are particularly culpable, David Donager in EPA and Mary Nichols at the California Air Resources Board.
The oil companies knew MTBE carried a threat of groundwater contamination as a result of a spill in 1980 in Rockaway, NJ. That's the Congress indemnified the oil companies in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, signed by "the Environmental President," George Herbert Walker Bush.
So why not start school an hour later.....Solves the problem.
I understand what you're saying, and I'm no enviro-wacko, but in all honesty setting clocks back is not much of a burden if it saves this much energy.
And this saves what???
What a guy.
I hadn’t considered kids going to school. Here they are already waiting at bus stops in the dark.
I’m not in favor of changing clocks at all. When Daylight Saving was introduced – in 1918 - most factories depended on skylights for lighting. It ain’t that way now.
> So why not start school an hour later.....Solves the problem.
Many parents have to go to work. So start work an hour later :) Now we're back to Standard Time!
Who benefits? The recreatational industry. Stuff like golf courses, tennis courts, people who manufacture stuff for these industries. More time after work means more people will use these facilities and spend more money on them.
My family at home has to deal with all the changes, though.
Who benefits? The recreatational industry.
My family at home has to deal with all the changes, though.
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