INTERVIEW - IEA backs Bush on Alaskan oil drilling
Date: 01-May-02
Country: FRANCE
Author: Marguerita Choy
But Robert Priddle, executive director of the West's energy watchdog, told Reuters the IEA also backed the greater focus on alternative fuels and energy conservation in a competing Democrat-led Senate bill also aimed at carrying out the first major overhaul of U.S. energy policy in a decade.
Last week, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that differs greatly from the Bush energy plan approved last year by the pro-Bush Republican-controlled House of Representatives by rejecting the proposal to allow drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
"There are now two quite contrasting bills from the House and from the Senate, and there are some good things in both," Priddle said in an interview during the launch of the Paris-based IEA's review on U.S. energy policy.
"The Senate bill does provide for a renewables portfolio and tax incentives for a new Alaskan pipeline, while the House bill was weaker on renewable incentives but was more open to the exploitation of ANWR," Priddle said.
In its 146-page report on US energy policy on fuel savings, refining capacity and the environment, the IEA urged Washington to convince the public that environmental problems surrounding the exploitation of domestic oil and gas can be overcome.
Environmentalists are fighting the drilling plan, saying the Alaskan refuge does not contain enough oil to justify destroying an area sheltering caribou, polar bears and migrating birds.
Pro-drilling advocates say the U.S. needs more oil and that 735,000 jobs would be created nationwide if oil companies were allowed to start exploring the wildlife refuge.
"It is disappointing that the Senate bill does not propose the opening of the Arctic refuge," he said.
"The U.S. is very heavily dependent on imported oil. We would like to see the opening of the Arctic Refuge in an environmentally sensitive way for a secure energy supply."
But while supporting drilling in the Arctic Refuge, the report also said that U.S. energy policy did not sufficiently encourage the development of new, cleaner energy sources, including renewables such as wind and solar power.
"In some areas, the U.S. policy debate is too narrowly based on current economic benefits and costs. Insufficient weight is given to external environment costs," it said.
Priddle added it was also disappointing that the Senate did not propose that corporate average fuel efficiency (CAFE) standards apply to sports utility vehicles (SUVs), since their growing use has resulted in a fall in fuel economy.
"Different CAFE standards for cars and light trucks ... should be addressed as a priority," the report said.
The report urged the government to allow the Department of Transportation to issue by 2004 new CAFE standards governing fuel specifications, which would then be strengthened progressively.
Priddle hoped that Senate and House negotiators, who are expected to spend months trying to work out differences in the two energy bills, would take account of IEA recommendations in the final energy package to be sent to the White House.
"We hope we have some influence on this process, but we don't exaggerate our influence," Priddle said.