From: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
OIL DEPENDENCE

American soldiers are still guarding oil fields in Iraq but you'd never know it
from watching Congress. Last month the House of Representatives passed an
energy bill that does virtually nothing to reduce our dangerous addiction to
Middle Eastern oil.

Instead, the House voted to leave fuel economy at its lowest level in 20 years,
promote reckless energy development on fragile wildlands, and hand out $20
billion in corporate welfare to giant oil, coal and nuclear companies that are
already rolling in enormous profits.

If you've had it with this kind of shameless payback to the auto and energy
lobbies then now's a good time to do something about it. The U.S. Senate is
about to vote on its own energy bill and it could be every bit as bad as the
House version -- unless millions of Americans speak out right now for a sane
and sustainable energy future.

I urge you to go to
http://www.nrdcaction.org/breakthechain/index.asp?step=2&item=10004&src=bkb0305
and send a message telling your senators to break the chain of America's
dependence on imported oil.

Our environment has been chained to the gas pump and our national security
chained to foreign oil for long enough. Drilling and destroying the Arctic
Wildlife Refuge and Greater Yellowstone, as the Bush administration would have
us do, is not the answer. Our nation simply doesn't have enough oil to drill
our way to self-sufficiency. We could empty every oil reserve in America and
we'd still be importing vast quantities of oil.

On the other hand, if we simply used available technology to raise fuel economy
standards for new cars and light trucks to 40 miles per gallon, we could save
two million barrels of oil a day -- more than we now import from Saudi Arabia.

More than 80 percent of Americans support such common sense improvements, but
the auto and oil lobbies are dead set against them. And the House has made it
clear it would rather let oil companies plunder our natural heritage than make
auto companies clean up the world's most inefficient gas guzzling vehicles.

We must stop the Senate from following suit and caving in to industry pressure.
These upcoming votes are absolutely crucial to America's energy independence
and environmental future. Please go to
http://www.nrdcaction.org/breakthechain/index.asp?step=2&item=10004&src=bkb0305
and tell your senators to give us the fuel efficient cars that Americans want.
And if you'd like to do even more, please forward this message to as many
people as you can.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.