Group lobbies against energy bill

As the energy bill that passed the U.S. House now goes to the Senate for debate, an Iowa advocacy group is lobbying against the bill. Emmet O’Hanlon of the Iowa Public Interest Research Group say the bill provides too many subsidies for traditional energy providers, such as coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power plants.PIRG is also unhappy with a provision of the bill that waives product liability for the makers of the gasoline additive M-T-B-E. O’Hanlon says that means communities suing over groundwater contamination caused by the additive will be out of luck. He says M-T-B-E has contaminated 2,704 sites in Iowa, and the cleanup cost will now be shifted to the taxpayers of Iowa.O’Hanlon says the bill may also makes it easier to drill for oil on public lands, but he says the public doesn’t know as much about the damaging aspects of this bill.O’Hanlon says PIRG does like the provisions for boosting ethanol use and the use of wind energy.