I saw today that a woman has been elected to head Argentina, and she ran on a campaign to address poverty and create jobs; that might be a rejection of Lula, if the new president means jobs for citizens in a free trade sense, not just meting out mental health and critical necessity estimations for drifting crowds...Lula was a pal of Chavez (also a make of no-trail vote machines), so we don't know just from election results and no other data, the kind which transcends mere gender.

I saw today Lake County IL gas is averaging $2.99 all of a sudden, adding Chavez oil buyers have been leading the pack before today, as if a reverse price war which can bolster Chavez in his Mid-East ambitions and get the USA population to blame Bush for high prices (even though lower throughout the whole Iran-Mid East affair until Citgo et al rose). In this sense, and having read and agreed with same, I wish to add my endorsement to the within following paragraphs, same entirely as received in e-petition intent from the American Conservative Union, and being, to-wit:

"As your constituent, I urge you to oppose the House-Senate Conference Energy Bill.  As you know, now that the House and Senate have passed separate bills, there are plans to draft a final version behind closed doors.  No matter what is in the final version, it will include provisions that gravely threaten our energy security and reduce domestic energy supply.

The House bill includes tax increases that will discourage any efforts to expand our domestic production of oil and natural gas.  On top of taxes, there are provisions to discourage expansion of our refining capacity and prevent the production of natural gas from known large reserves. 

The Senate bill threatens our ability as consumers to meet our energy needs.  A mandate to reduce oil consumption by 10 percent flies in the face of our own government projections of a need in future years for 30 percent more oil and natural gas than we have today. While the so-called “anti-price-gouging” provisions sound good, these kinds of price controls reflect the same type of thinking that led to fuel shortages and gas lines in the 1970s.

Mandates for massive increases in ethanol and other biofuels use will send the price of corn and feedstock for livestock soaring, which could lead to consumer product inflation and endanger the health of our economy. [Signatory's Note: many States, like Illinois, declare that they have developed and will continue to develop their farmlands into New Urban subprime communities mostly made up of housing, not being interested in lower cost rejuvenation of poor soil, so reduced farms just means trading foreign hands from supply of petroleum to supply of biofuel, further to interests who would only sell to us if we had no real military, defenses, police, or commerce/jobs of our own and ally to Communist or Mid-East extremist elements.]

This bill is a hodgepodge of failed ideas from the past that might satisfy some special interests in Washington, but will leave American consumers high and dry when it comes to our energy needs.  This bill would also threaten our energy security for years to come. 

Please do not give in to demands to just “pass an energy bill” regardless of what is in it, and make every effort to join with others in putting a stop to this disastrous legislation."