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Oil prices move up, Congress moves nowhere
7/19/06

With oil reaching record highs Thursday (over $78 a barrel) and the United States increasingly dependent on imported oil, you might think this would be the perfect time for Congress to move legislation that would help get more hybrids and other fuel-efficient automobiles on the road. Unfortunately, although there are several proposals out there (most of which I detailed in a February legislative overview), it seems unlikely that either the House or Senate will move on them before their long August recess, or even before the election in November.

This lack of action ignores the fact that there is broad bipartisan support for several promising bills, notably the Boehlert-Markey bill H.R. 3762 that would increase fuel economy for cars and trucks to 33 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2016 from the current average of around 24 mpg. H.R. 3762 has 88 bipartisan cosponsors. A similar but more aggressive and broader bill, S. 3543, was just introduced in the Senate and already has 12 cosponsors. Legislation to guarantee large oil savings also has broad bipartisan support in both houses: H.R. 4409 has 83 cosponsors while S. 2025, the Senate version, has 27 cosponsors (see the full cosponsor lists for H.R. 4409 and S. 2025). Incredibly, the leadership in both houses is unlikely to bring either bill to a vote unless there’s an unprecedented public outcry for meaningful action. If you haven’t already, you can help create such an outcry by taking action on the oil savings bills and the Boehlert-Markey bill.

If you do take action, please take the time to personalize it. There has been a lot of talk on Capitol Hill lately about members of Congress and their staffs mistaking real online constituent contact for “spam.” One of the best ways we can combat that misperception, and help ensure that online communications to our senators and representatives will be heeded, is for activists to personalize our letter template so there will be no mistaking that the sentiments in the letter, while shared by many others, are uniquely your own.

Posted by: Eli 7/19/06

Original post and comments can be found on Hybridblog.org.