Bush & congress hurt local control with energy bill
WASHINGTON -- The recently passed US energy bill, a huge spending measure aimed mostly at more of the same pollution, also gives more power to heavy-handed federalism at the expense of local control.
If a state or community does not wanted to be harmed by energy projects and says no, the matter was usually settled in state courts if corporations sued. Now the big money energyheads can go straight to federal court where they will argue a national need and greed for energy must be fed and locals cannot stand in the way, even if it harms their neighborhoods.
This hack against local quality of life interests is brought to Americans by GW Bush and the Republican Party (and many Dems who supported the energy bill), who show once again that big corporate money beats true local control.
These chumps will hem and haw about supporting local control, but they do only when the locals support the view of industry or the feds. When locals do not, all of the sudden we need the heavy boot of the feds to keep local interests down.
One area where we can keep local control is in elections, and I predict the locals will boot many federalist politicians in 06.
If a state or community does not wanted to be harmed by energy projects and says no, the matter was usually settled in state courts if corporations sued. Now the big money energyheads can go straight to federal court where they will argue a national need and greed for energy must be fed and locals cannot stand in the way, even if it harms their neighborhoods.
This hack against local quality of life interests is brought to Americans by GW Bush and the Republican Party (and many Dems who supported the energy bill), who show once again that big corporate money beats true local control.
These chumps will hem and haw about supporting local control, but they do only when the locals support the view of industry or the feds. When locals do not, all of the sudden we need the heavy boot of the feds to keep local interests down.
One area where we can keep local control is in elections, and I predict the locals will boot many federalist politicians in 06.
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