The Imperial House of Corporate Representatives passed a bill permitting drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge yesterday. « Let’s just see what this little bill does », shall we?

1. Provides $8.1 billion in tax breaks over 10 years, most of it going to promote coal, nuclear, oil and natural gas energy industries.

2. Makes it easier to build liquefied natural gas import terminals, even if states or local communities oppose the project.

3. Requires refiners to use more corn-based ethanol in gasoline.

4. Protects makers of the gasoline additive MTBE from product liability lawsuits stemming from the chemical’s contamination of drinking water by giving them “safe harbor.”

5. Saddles communities and water districts with billions of dollars in MTBE cleanup costs.

6. Provides $2 billion to help MTBE makers, including major oil companies and refiners, to shift away from MTBE production.

7. Extends daylight-saving time by two months to reduce energy use.

Sing along with me … ‘Corporateland, Corporateland, uber alles …’

Meanwhile, an attempt to require automakers to increase fuel economy to a fleet average of 33 miles per gallon over the next decade, saving some two million barrels of oil a day, was defeated, thereby proving the potency of the bribes and payoff from both the energy and automaker industries.

Wonder if we’ll be hearing clamoring from the moral values crowd over this one?

[Crickets chirping]