Clean Energy Legislation

On December 18th, 2007 the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 was passed in both houses and the following day, was signed into law by President Bush. The bill was created by the Democratic Congress with the intention of “move[ing] the United States toward greater energy independence and security, to increase the production of clean renewable fuels, to protect consumers, to increase the efficiency of products, buildings, and vehicles, to promote research on and deploy greenhouse gas capture and storage options, and to improve the energy performance of the Federal Government.”

The bill included many key changes to legislation that needed updating. For example the United States CAFE (Corporate Standard Fuel Economy) standards, which help regulate the required fuel economy of passenger vehicles and had not been updated since 1975, were updated in this bill requiring that Automakers raise their fleet wide fuel efficiency to 35 mpg by 2020. The bill also included some updates in the required energy efficiency of appliances and lighting, focusing mainly on the efficiency of light bulbs, requiring a 25 percent increase in efficiency by 2012, and a 200 percent increase by 2020. The bill even extends some tax payer funding to the research and development of solar and geothermal energy resources as well as other renewable energy technologies.

All of this sounds great, but was it enough? What many people never hear about are the parts of the bill that were originally proposed, but never passed. It may come as somewhat of a shock to learn that former President Bush actually signed this bill into law, but what doesn't come as a shock are the items on the list of proposals that were removed before this bill was singed in. On the list of proposals not enacted was a proposal to end subsidies for big oil companies, eliminating certain tax deductions to producers of oil and natural gas. Producers who continue to make billions in profits each year while receiving millions of tax payer funded subsidies.



In 2009 Exxon Mobil received $156 million in tax returns and Chevron received $19 million.



That same year Exxon Mobil reported $19.3 BILLION in profits and Chevron reported $10.5 BILLION!

 So, why do these oil companies continue to get tax payer funded subsidies? It seems to me that there may be a recurring theme here, those that have enough money to buy the politicians do, while those that don't have millions to spend have no voice at all.



Chevron and Exxon Mobil spent almost $20 million combined on lobbying in 2010. Still wonder why they continue to receive subsidies?