NEWS RELEASE
Committee on Energy and Commerce Democrats
Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member

Subcommittee on Energy Republicans
Vote AGAINST Bipartisan Compromise on
Hydropower and FOR Diesel Fuel in Drinking Water

Washington, D.C. – In today’s Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality markup of the Energy Policy Act of 2003, Republican members voted against last year’s bipartisan compromise on hydropower and for diesel fuel in drinking water.

"It is inconceivable that anyone in their right mind would knowingly vote to allow the injection of diesel fuel into underground sources of drinking water," said Rep. John D. Dingell, Ranking Member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. "Likewise, I cannot fathom why the majority has abandoned the bipartisan accomplishments of last Congress on hydropower to coddle industry at the expense of America’s rivers and waterways."

Republican members of the Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality voted against:

• a Waxman amendment to express the sense of Congress that diesel fuel should be prohibited from being injected into underground sources of drinking water. Currently, the oil and gas industry uses diesel fuel in hydraulic fracturing of coalbed methane reservoirs.
• a Dingell amendment to restore bipartisan House-passed hydropower provisions supported last Congress by all affected environmental groups and industry. The Republican language drastically alters the licensing process to give the hydropower industry unprecedented advantage during the licensing process and will result in a major rollback of existing protections for fish, wildlife, habitat and water quality.

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