The language gets more specific - it's all about oil

Secret Language of Senator Stevens is exposed

This is a copy of the document being demanded by Alaska's Senator Stevens. Conferees are being told they have until 5pm today to object. Click the document to enlarge for easy reading.

What one Clean Power Now board member called "a blatant abuse of power coupled with a total disregard for the usual Senatorial courtesies" is evident in the secret, behind closed door amendment language now being covertly added to the U.S. Coast Guard Re-authorization bill by Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens.

Massachusetts Senator Kerry and Maine Senator Olympia Snowe have asked that this attempt to alter the meaning and intent of the recently passed federal energy bill be stopped.

It is highly unusual for politicians in a state a continent removed, to grant another sovereign state veto power over the decisions of the Department of the Interior and the United State Coast Guard. It is equally unusual for a select group of four politicians to secretly add language to a Federal bill which would alter the meaning and intent of another bill, the recent new energy bill, after the latter had become law.

The true copy of the secret document is shown on the right, and a direct link to a PDF of it is below. You can click the image on right to enlarge for easier reading.

The pdf is here.

The language, said to have originated with Sen. Ted Stevens and forwarded by Cape Wind and Clean Power Now to its supporters this afternoon, specifies that it would be the governor of Massachusetts at the time the licensing process ends who could wield veto power over a Coast Guard determination on navigation - and the governor would not need a specific reason for the veto.

Conferees have supposedly been asked to return by 5 pm with any objections.

It's all about oil

Everyone behind this chicanery has their hands dripping with oil: Senator Stevens and Congressman Don Young claim on their websites that their poudest acheivements in congress is the authorization od the Alaska pipeline. Bill Koch and Doug Yearley, both oil men, financed the major part the lobby efforts to stop Cape Wind by a series of similar congressional ploys.

If these powerful and rich men succeed in stopping Cape Wind, they also will send a strong and frightening warning to every other business thinking about spending millions to help solve America's energy needs - don't mess with big oil.

Clean Power Now has urged its members to call these U.S. Senators on this matter:
Senator Olympia Snowe, R-Maine; 202-224-5344,
Senator Ted Stevens, R-Alaska; 202- 224-3004,
Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; 202- 224-3441,
Senator Gordon Smith, R-Ore., 202- 224-3753,
Senator Trent Lott, R-Miss.; 202- 224-6253,
Senator Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii; 202- 224-3934,
Senator Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.; 202- 224-3224

The language on the table gets more capricious and obvious

The specific language being circulated is impossible to confirm further at this point, given the fog and genuine threat to justifiable public policy emanating out of Washington, but the documents shown above are real and threaten the entire offshore energy industry.

What business would spend the tens of millions required to pass through the licensing process over years and years if at the end of the process a local politician with no expertise but a suddenly enlarged campaign chest could veto the entire project?

Sec. 414. OPINIONS REGARDING WHETHER CERTAIN FACILITIES CREATE OBSTRUCTIONS TO NAVIGATION.

       Section 14 of the Ports and Waterways Safety Act is amended by adding at the end:
       "(e) WIND ENERGY FACILITY. --
               "(1) IN GENERAL. -- An offshore wind energy facility may not be constructed in the area commonly known as Nantucket Sound unless the construction of such facility is approved by the Commandant of the Coast Guard.
               "(2) INFORMATION. -- A person intending to build an offshore wind energy facility in the area commonly known as Nantucket Sound shall provide to the Commandant of the Coast Guard and the Governor of any adjacent State the plan for the siting and construction of the facility, including the location, size and design of each wind turbine, any cable connecting the facility to onshore sites, and any other offshore components and such information as the Commandant may require ..."
               "(3) LIMITATION ON APPROVAL. -- The Commandant may not approve construction of the facility if, within 90 days of receiving this plan --
    "(A) the Governor of an adjacent State makes a written determination of the Commandant that the Governor opposes the site chosen for the facility; or ...
    " (B) the Commandant determines that the facility creates a hazard to navigation.
               "(4) DEFINITION. -- In this section, 'adjacent coastal State' is any coastal State which --
               "(A) would be directly connected by a cable to a proposed wind energy facility, or
               "(B) would be located within 15 miles of any such proposed wind energy facility."

The pdf of this document is here.