Joining eight other state attorneys general, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer sent a letter to Congress strongly opposing the so-called refinery bill (HR. 3893) in an eleventh-hour move last week that proved unsuccessful in the House of Representatives where by a narrow majority (212-210) the legislation was sent on to the Senate last Friday. Lockyer attacked the bill for what he alleged was its real intent of permanently weakening national clean air standards in the name of providing a temporary response to the nation’s refining shortage in the wake of the two Gulf of Mexico hurricanes.

Lockyer said he was joining his counterparts from the states of Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Vermont and Wisconsin in opposing the legislation sponsored by House Energy Committee Chair Joe Barton (R-TX). The letter was addressed to the Republican and Democratic Party leaders in the House, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), minority leader.

The joint letter said that the Barton bill “would be a major setback for air quality across the nation,” alleging that the proposed legislation would “permanently, and unnecessarily, override state environmental protections regarding new refineries and pipelines.”

In addition to weakening the nation’s clean air laws, the attorneys generals’ letter contends the proposed new law’s conservation provisions would be “ineffective and insufficient.”

Lockyer and his counterparts ended their three-page communication by alleging the legislation would sacrifice air quality and public health, “using scarce taxpayer funds to subsidize private interests” and in the process hurting — not helping — energy security. They ask Congress to reject the bill, but their lobbying now will have to shift to the Senate.

©Copyright 2005Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.