Blackouts coming + price hikes: Energy Bill again in the House

[oscar111]

FDR created the PUBLIC UTILITY HOLDING COMPANY ACT ... PUHCA... after horrid abuses by the electric companies.

Now they want to repeal it totally.
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2 Huge blackouts -- we need re-regulation, but GOP now goes for total DEregulation
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Fax / email your House representatives, and perhaps senators too, as they may get this later.

Public Citizen site has many details
CMEP page is the section. Critical Mass Energy Program. Sub to their newsletter.

url is at bottom, this post

Alas, they have never gotten the idea of one-click emails to congress by us readers of their fine newsletter... like the one-click email service done by truemajority.

Citizen.org still gives you a ton of info, tho, and no other group does to my knowledge.
No other alerts one to when these bills come up. Do you know of any other group doing that?

the horrid Omnibus Energy Bill would open up transmission lines to enron-style energy TRADERS.
Plus many other bad ideas.

In the Senate, N M's senator Dominici is the sponsor. For now, the bill is in the House, and Thurs may be a vote day april 21.
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Subtitle F—Repeal of PUHCA
The 70 year old consumer and investor protection statute would be completely abolished within 12 months, opening up ownership of approximately ONE TRILLION DOLLARS worth of electric generation, transmission and distribution assets and natural gas distribution assets to any kind of company, anywhere, for the first time since 1935.

The roaring 1920s of utility holding company Enron-like abuses, which resulted in 53 utility holding company bankruptcies and 16 interest defaults, lengthening and deepening the Great Depression, will return.   Indeed, Enron's ability to abuse electric contracts came from several partial repeals of PUHCA by Congress in 1992 and 1996.   Rather than reversing these partial repeals in light of their disastrous consequences, however, Congress is now proposing to repeal PUHCA altogether.

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Remember, the NE blackout caused by pennypinching.. not trimming a branch... and the CA blackout caused by intentionally turning off the switch to up prices.

Contact your rep and Senators

PS nader left the group years ago.
Public Citizen Home Page - Stop regressive energy legislation!

http://www.citizen.org/campaigns/articles.cfm?ID=9943

Here is how Public Citizen site wants you to take action: { i think one-click emails/fax are better. PCitizen has perhaps THE BEST research of any site {!} but poor final way to affect Congress. It's like a boxer with huge muscles that is unable to throw a punch}

Here is what they urge us to do :
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--Call Congress -- the number for the Capitol switchboard is [phone]
-- and tell your senators and representative that you don't support an energy bill that harms consumers in the above ways.---
--- This is especially important if your Congressional representatives are on the energy bill conference committee.  (Go HERE for a list of the committee members.) 

--- If your senator is a Democrat, urge him or her to filibuster any energy legislation that doesn't protect consumers and the environment. 

----- Finally, urge your representative to support Rep. John Dingell's (D-MI) bill, H.R. 3004, the "Electricity Reliability Improvement Act of 2003";

--- also urge your senators to sponsor a similar bill.

--- You can send a FREE FAX to your senators and representative via our Web site! Tell your friends!

snip

{Alas, that free fax is not one-click. One has to have the time to select from several "first paragraphs", then from among several "second paragraphs", and so on. Then, about seven fields of your address etc. Only bright spot is that they have a button to save the fields for the next time. -- 90% of us are likely too busy to have time to build a fax, but would send a "One-click fax/email"}

[salin]

1. This is an exceptionally important issue

I hope that folks aren't too transfixed by DeLay, by the Bolton conf hearing, etc to watch the camel whose nose is in the tent...