The following is a prepared statement by Keith Ashdown, Vice-President of Policy at Taxpayers for Common Sense on H.R. #6:

Washington, D.C – In their unending quest to please their energy industry paymasters, subsidy-happy legislators added $35 billion to the already bloated Energy Policy Act last Friday in the hope that their greased-up bill would slide right through Congress to final passage. Their efforts have not gone unrewarded – it is becoming crystal clear that the energy bill will sail through the House as early as tomorrow. The bill’s proponents have succeeded in fixing this vote before debate even begins, and it’s all thanks to their billion-dollar vote buying strategy for passage. Corn Country gets billions, Big Oil gets billions, Nuclear Power gets billions, King Coal gets billions – and taxpayers get stuck paying record prices at the pump. With a total cost of nearly $90 billion, this legislation is nothing more than a grab bag of high-priced special interest goodies for energy corporations. Unfortunately, it’s a nightmare for everyone else.

When they take a step back to look at what they’ve done, most congressmen will realize that the bill they’ve passed is a major step backwards for America’s energy future. In their zeal to check every item off the energy industry’s wish list, Congress has put together a package of special interest subsidies and breaks that undermines market forces.

The President said last week that at a time of sky-high energy prices, the oil and gas industry doesn’t need federal support. We couldn’t agree with him more. The energy industry, which is reaping record profits these days, doesn’t need the federal government’s charity, and this nation surely doesn’t need to add another $90 billion to our already burdensome debt load.

The underlying story here – one that most of these porkers should have learned a long time ago – is that lawmakers can’t spend their way out of high gas prices and our energy problems. Legislators can’t just throw money at energy projects in a scattershot fashion and pray that America’s problems will go away. If Congress really wants to banish blackouts, electricity crises, and volatile energy prices for good, they need throw this bill in the trash and start from scratch.