UPDATE - Bush looks at green in energy plan-critics see red
Date: 21-May-01
Country: USA
Author: Patricia Wilson
In a two-pronged approach, Bush told Americans that U.S. oil, gas and power production could be increased and the nation's air, land and water protected at the same time with the help of new technology.
"Too often Americans are asked to take sides between energy production and environmental protection," Bush said. "The truth is, energy production and environmental protection are not competing priorities. Both can be achieved with new technology and a new vision."
White House officials said they expected Bush's national energy strategy to draw fierce criticism. On Saturday, Democratic Gov. Gray Davis of blackout-hit California, challenged Bush, a former Texas oilman, "to stand up to your friends in the energy industry."
Two days after unveiling a plan that called for expanding U.S. coal, oil and nuclear power production and offered conservation incentives to reduce record gas prices and eliminate blackouts, Bush took to the airwaves to sell his vision.
"It's time to leave behind rancorous old arguments and build a positive new consensus," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "With new technology, sound regulation, and plain good sense, we can expand our energy production while protecting the environment."
Bush said if he failed to act, the environment would suffer as officials tried to prevent blackouts by using more polluting backup generators and running less efficient old power plants too hard and too long.
KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON
"We need to act to prevent more - and more widespread - blackouts," he said.
The White House energy report concluded the United States was facing the worst energy shortages since the oil embargoes of the 1970s. Its 105 recommendations were weighted more toward increasing supply than decreasing demand.
The plan sparked an immediate firestorm and carries political risk for Bush, a Republican whose energy industry allies helped him get elected.
Democrats and green groups lined up to oppose the policy developed under the direction of Vice President Dick Cheney, a former oil company executive, as a boon to Bush's industry friends, a threat to the environment and an inadequate answer to immediate U.S. energy problems.
The natural gas, oil, electric, nuclear and coal interests embraced the report, which would increase production by spurring the building of new nuclear power plants, opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling and streamlining rules on power plant and refinery expansions.
Bush's plan also would build more pipelines to carry oil and natural gas.
On the conservation front, it provides $10 billion in tax breaks, including $4 billion in credits for the purchase of fuel-efficient "hybrid" vehicles and a 15 percent credit for installing solar panels on houses.
EFFICIENCY AND CONSERVATION
Bush's agenda included no specific measures to avert summer blackouts in California or to combat record-high gasoline prices, and he did not directly address either on Saturday.
Davis, tapped to give the Democratic response, said without the short-term price relief Bush has rejected, the crisis in California would spill over and damage the U.S. economy.
"What's going on here, pure and simple, is unconscionable price-gouging by the big energy producers - most of them, incidentally, located in Texas," he said. "Mr. President, with all due respect, I urge you to stand up to your friends in the energy business and exercise the federal government's exclusive responsibility to ensure energy prices are reasonable."
Bush focused on new electric power plants he said would be built over the next 20 years fueled by "clean and safe natural gas;" the use of wind, solar, hydropower, nuclear, and other energy sources "that emit no pollution at all;" and cars that emit 95 percent less pollution than those built 30 years ago.
"Wise regulation and American innovation will make this country the world's leader in energy efficiency and conservation
