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John Kerry ’66

By the staff | 4:50pm May 14 2010

Don’t be confused by the bill’s title or the co-authorship of Senator Joseph Lieberman ’64, ’67LLB. The American Power Act, introduced by John Kerry ’66 on May 12, is not an authorization to assassinate foreign leaders or torture suspected terrorists. It’s a climate and energy proposal that will “transform our economy, set us on the path toward energy independence and improve the quality of the air we breathe,” Kerry’s website proclaims.

“Right now, as one of the worst oil spills in our nation’s history washes onto our shores, no one can doubt how urgently we need a new energy policy in this country,” Kerry told the Senate. And indeed, the New York Times notes, Kerry and Lieberman “rewrote the section on offshore oil drilling in recent days to reflect mounting concern over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.” A summary of the bill [PDF] says it offers “important new protections for coastal states by allowing them to opt-out of drilling up to 75 miles from their shores.” But the president of Friends of the Earth, writing for the Huffington Post, calls the plan a “junk shot” that will “encourage states to ‘drill, baby, drill.’”

Filed under energy, environment
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