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U.S. President Unveils National Energy Policy
U.S. President George Bush on Thursday unveiled a national energy policy aimed at dealing with what he said is the most serious energy shortage the country faces since the oil embargoes of 1970s.
Bush kicked off the campaign to sell his energy proposals Thursday in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The energy blueprint, crafted by a cabinet-level task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, seeks to correct "the fundamental imbalance between supply and demand," calling for boosting supplies of oil, gas and electricity.
The report proposes little to address this summer's soaring gasoline prices or electricity shortages in the western part of the country, but includes several proposals sure to trigger sharp debate in Congress. They include drilling for oil in an Arctic wildlife refuge and possibly reviving nuclear fuel reprocessing, which was abandoned in the 1970s due to nuclear proliferation threat.
Democrats denounced the energy package, calling it a product of an administration "filled top to bottom with people from the oil industry."
Both Bush and Cheney are former Texas oil industry executives. Energy companies also were heavy contributors to the former Texas governor's presidential campaign.
"America in the year 2001 faces the most serious energy shortage since the oil embargoes of the 1970s," the 163-page report says. It outlines 105 recommendations from speeding up construction of power lines and development of clean coal technology to reviewing whether to tighten vehicle fuel economy standards.
The president's plan calls for easing regulatory barriers to building nuclear power plants, expanding oil and gas development, and improving the nation's inadequate and sometimes precarious electricity grid.
As for conservation, the task force recommended about US$6 billion in tax credits over 10 years to reduce energy use, mostly to spur the sale of hybrid gas-electric vehicles and development of co-generation power plants that waste less energy because they produce electricity and heat.
Even before the report's release, the general thrust of Bush's energy strategy came under attack from Democrats who said it would increase air pollution, open pristine federal lands to development and do too little to promote conservation.
Democrats have argued that Bush should urge temporary price controls to rein in the western electricity prices and call for more aggressive investigation of circumstances surrounding the sudden recent spike in gasoline prices.
Environmentalists criticize the plan for stressing production over conservation and alternative energy sources.
The Bush report will be sent to Congress, where it will be a central part of energy legislation to be proposed by the Republicans. Democrats already have vowed to fight some of its key provisions and have introduced legislation of their own.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said he hoped to get the energy package approved by July 4, but cautioned that some of Bush 's proposals "will be hotly debated."
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