HEADLINE: Democrats unveil energy plan
Quick-fix proposal targets rising gas prices, blackouts
BYLINE: Jonathan Weisman
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY: WASHINGTON -- House Democrats laid out a national energy strategy of quick regulatory fixes for soaring gasoline and electricity prices Tuesday. The emphasis drew clear distinctions between their plan and the one President Bush is proposing.
The Democratic document is a pre-emptive political strike
on Bush's plan, which he formally unveils Thursday, as much as it is
a legislative program. Its reliance on regulatory mandates and
attention to environmental protections contrasts sharply with the
president's push for oil and gas production and regulatory relief
for energy industries.
The
Democrats emphasized that their plan would address the immediate problems of rolling blackouts in California and rising fuel prices. Vice President Cheney has said the White House plan would offer no quick fixes.
"This
administration needs to act," House Democratic leader Richard
Gephardt said. "We call on the president to move away from the
special interests and put the interests of the American people
first."
White House officials were not
taking the bait. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer chose to emphasize
what the plans had in common: tax credits to spur energy
conservation and increased federal funding to insulate houses.
"The energy plan offered by the Democrats on
the Hill today has some areas of overlapping commonality with the
plan that the president is about to propose," Fleischer said, "and
the president looks forward to working with Congress on those
areas."
The Democrats' plan has more
contrasts than similarities to the Bush proposals, however. It
resolutely opposes the centerpiece of the Bush plan: opening the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and other protected
federal lands to oil and gas drilling. And it would assert a heavier
government hand by:
* Instructing federal
regulators to cap wholesale electric power rates in California and
to reclaim windfall profits gained by power producers during the
state's electricity crisis. On Tuesday, California officials
approved hikes for some residential users of as much as 80%.
* Asking the president to tap the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve and pressure oil-producing nations to open the
spigot and push down gasoline prices.
* Demanding a Justice Department investigation into allegations of price-fixing by oil companies.
* Establishing fuel-efficiency standards specifically for light trucks, sport-utility vehicles and minivans, which consume more gas than smaller cars. Current regulations permit an automaker to average the mileage of all models in a fleet.
The Democrats would use federal tax credits to encourage
the purchase of energy-efficient homes, appliances and vehicles, to
promote investment in renewable energy sources such as wind and
solar power, and to promote the construction of a natural-gas
pipeline from the North Slope of Alaska, where vast natural-gas
reserves have gone untapped.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, B/W,
Hillery Smith Garrison, AP; Pump politics: Democrat Richard Gephardt pitches
energy plan Tuesday at a Capitol Hill service station.
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