Debating How to Tax Oil Company Profits; How Fat Cat Military Contracts Hurt Public Transit; Congress Debates Fuel Standards for Cars - and Hydrogen-Powered Cars
ExxonMobile and other oil companies are posting huge profits -- while everyday Americans pay more and more for gasoline. Some environmentalists say that we're still not paying enough for oil, while others say we should change how we tax fossil fuels. Tyson Slocum, the Acting Director of the energy program at Public Citizen and Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute debate the issue
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Jonathan Feldman is a research fellow investigating the connections between military contracts and public transit. He says that companies that otherwise would be building trolleys, subways cars and trains are instead going after fat military contracts to build tanks, personnel carriers and other equipment. Feldman joins host Daphne Wysham on the phone from his office in Sweden.
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A bill pending in the U.S. Congress seeks to get rid of the fuel efficiency standards set back in 1975 for all new cars. Allison Cassady is the research director for the Public Interest Research Group - PIRG. She says a Texas lawmaker and the Bush administration are pushing a bill that would lift the current 27 mile per gallon standard for all new cars.
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A few weeks ago, co-host Daphne Wysham took a ride in an hydrogen-powered car. Joining her in the Earthbeat studios is one of the engineers who built the car and who hopes to see a fleet of hydrogen-powered cars on the road within the next 10 years - Raj Choudhury of General Motors.
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Last week Earthbeat co-host Mike Tidwell and his colleagues at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network - CCAN led an protest outside the offices of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration headquarters in the Washington, DC area to highlight how climate scientists are being censored. Mike joins up on the phone for an update on the action
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