We the undersigned parties to this Petition are urging you to act immediately to correct the obvious deficiencies in the Energy Bill that recently narrowly passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. We are requesting this in the interest of national security, nationwide economic recovery efforts, and as your constituents from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We believe that the bill relies much too heavily on unproven, renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and biofuels while ignoring our country�s, and Pennsylvania�s, greatest clean energy resource: Natural Gas. The bill does not provide any incentives for clean, reliable natural gas to be an important bridge fuel in achieving independence from foreign oil and managing climate change. One glaring deficiency is the lack of any federal incentives to convert our nation�s transportation fleet, especially heavy-duty vehicles, now to abundant clean burning natural gas while at the same time providing billions for technologically and commercially unproven cellulosic biofuels in the hopes that it will provide 18 Billion gallons a year of motor fuel many years from now. The one current incentive for natural gas fleet conversion was removed by Congress as it failed to renew the vehicle purchase and fuel use tax incentives for natural gas powered vehicles that expire in 2009 and 2010. In addition, the bill penalizes the production of domestic natural gas by eliminating the preferential tax deduction for Intangible Drilling Costs (typically 65% - 80% of drilling costs) as well as the Depletion Allowance for investors in oil and gas wells. Domestic natural gas, especially in Pennsylvania, is primarily produced by domestic independent operators - not large global integrated oil and gas majors. These independents rely on the current tax structure to attract domestic investment capital to domestic gas exploration and production. The dollars spent for domestic gas production stay within our borders producing jobs and tax revenue, creating pools of capital for further domestic investment and reducing capital outflows to unfriendly foreign nations. Pursuing the course of action outlined in the current version of the bill is not only extraordinarily risky (as evidenced by the recent announcement that T. Boone Pickens is delaying the development of his Texas wind farm due to the technical difficulties and transmission costs) but is also economically devastating to our great nation as well as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Marcellus Shale can provide our nation with a significant portion of its domestic energy needs for years to come while benefiting the citizens of our great Commonwealth. Federal Legislation that penalizes instead of encourages the use of natural gas and the development of the Marcellus Shale is harmful for both Pennsylvania and the country. We urge you to reverse the great harm to our national security and economic well being that will result if the above mentioned deficiencies are not removed from the Energy Bill and replaced by a more balanced, less risky program that includes incentives for the use and development of Pennsylvania's great natural gas reserves.

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