Indiana groups rally against federal energy bill

INDIANAPOLIS -- Several Indiana organizations Tuesday urged Sen. Evan Bayh and Sen. Richard Lugar to vote against a federal energy bill they said would hurt the environment and efforts to create new jobs.\nThe groups said at a Statehouse news conference they believed the bill placed too much emphasis on fossil fuels without stressing energy conservation or renewable resources.\nAndy Knott, air and energy policy director for the Hoosier Environmental Council, said the bill would gut the federal Clean Air Act.\n"It would leave thousands of Hoosiers gasping for clean air," he said.\nGrant Smith, utility program director for Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, said the bill would neither help create jobs nor prevent energy scandals like Enron from happening again. He said the legislation did not do enough for alternative energy sources like solar power or wind.\n"We're not going to lose coal, but we can diversify," he said.\nBut the bill may not pose that much of a threat to its opponents.\nBoth Smith and a spokesman for Lugar said parts of the bill were being moved to other legislation because Senate leadership might not support the current bill.\n"It's certainly good that there are interest groups that are interested in this," said Nick Weber, a Lugar spokesman. "But it's kind of a moot point."\nLugar, a Republican, supported a similar bill last year, but Weber said the bill was changed and he could not predict how Lugar would vote on the issue if it came up for a vote.\nBayh, a Democrat seeking re-election this year, did not support the bill last year. A message seeking comment was left Tuesday at his Washington office.\nOther groups participating in the news conference were the League of Women Voters, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Indiana Interfaith Task Force.