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*** Please forward widely ***
!!! A C T I O N A L E R T !!!
April 12, 2004
CALL Your Senators at Home to Register Your Opposition to Over $10 Billion in Tax Breaks for Corporate Polluters!
Members of Congress have retreated to their home districts until April 19, and now is a perfect time to contact your senators in their district offices to voice your opposition to the energy bill tax package, which has been attached to an unrelated bill, the Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) bill. The energy bill tax package includes over $10 billion in tax breaks to the coal, oil, gas, and nuclear industries. A vote on the bill is expected next week.
CALL YOUR SENATORS THIS WEEK!
Find their district contact information here: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/
As a positive measure, urge your senators to co-sponsor the "Electric Reliability Act of 2004" (S. 2236), offered by Sens. Cantwell (D-WA), Bingaman (D-NM), Clinton (D-NY), Jeffords (I-VT), Schumer (D-NY), Reid (D-NV), and Daschle (D-SD).
BACKGROUND
Senate Republican leaders have attached the tax package from the Senate energy bill (S. 2095) to the Foreign Sales Corporation/ExtraterritorialIncome (FSC/ETI) bill, which repeals the foreign sales corporationincome tax. A vote to end debate on the FSC bill failed last week, butSenate leaders have since come to an agreement on a list of amendmentsthat can be offered. Another vote on the FSC bill is expected nextweek.
The energy bill tax package includes a few provisions to supportconservation and renewable energy, but the bulk of the tax breaks go tothe oil and gas industry ($7.4 billion), the failed "clean coal" ($2.2billion) technology, and the nuclear industry to modify decommissioningfunds ($1 billion). Significantly, the tax package will do nothing toaddress rising gasoline prices (see Public Citizen's analysis athttp://www.citizen.org/documents/oilmergers.pdf ).
Moreover, Energy & Natural Resources Committee Chairman Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) views the passing of the tax package as the first step to passing the rest of the energy bill. Keep abreast of the latest news and action alerts at our energy bill action page: http://www.stopenergybill.org To learn more about this and other Public Citizen Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program campaigns, visit their website at http://www.citizen.org/cmep/
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