Copyright 2001 The Washington Post


The Washington Post
May 18, 2001 Friday
Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01

LENGTH: 1440 words

HEADLINE: Bush Issues Energy Warning;
President Unveils New Policy, to Praise and Attacks on Party Lines

BYLINE: Mike Allen and Dana Milbank, Washington Post Staff Writers

DATELINE: ST. PAUL, Minn. May 17

BODY:


President Bush unveiled his much-anticipated energy policy to the nation today from the banks of the Mississippi River, warning of widespread misery if Congress resists his plan to increase the country's power production.

Bush flew to a convention center here to announce his proposals after four months of deliberations, winning acclaim from Republicans and the energy industry, which stands to make billions of dollars from his ideas, and complaints from Democrats and environmentalists, who hope to exploit the policy as a way to portray the president -- a former Texas oilman -- as a captive of industry.

"If we fail to act, Americans will face more, and more widespread, blackouts," Bush said. "America cannot allow that to be our future, and we will not." The president, adding a tone of urgency to his long-term proposals, said a future without new sources of energy "is unfortunately being previewed in rising prices at the gas pump and rolling blackouts in the great state of California."

In California, Gov. Gray Davis (D) accused the administration of "turning a blind eye to the bleeding and hemorrhaging that exists in this state." He excoriated Bush for refusing to cap wholesale energy prices. "We are literally in a war with energy companies, many of which reside in Texas," Davis said.

The White House today released the full 170-page report, which provides more detail but follows closely the outline Bush advisers introduced Wednesday night. Bush seeks reduced regulations to encourage more oil, gas and nuclear production, tax incentives to boost coal output, and other tax incentives aimed at conservation and renewable fuels. The president said the nation needs 1,300 to 1,900 new power plants over the next 20 years, and 38,000 additional miles of natural gas pipelines and 263,000 miles of distribution lines.

Some of the proposals, notably the call to drill in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, are considered nonstarters in Congress, where the plan is likely to be amended with more short-term solutions to the California energy squeeze. But the bulk of the recommendations are in executive orders and regulatory changes, which the administration can do with little resistance. Bush plans to sign an order next week directing federal agencies to expedite permits for new energy plants.

The president's allies in Congress vowed swift action. House Resources Committee Chairman James V. Hansen (R-Utah) said his panel would work quickly to accommodate the plan by opening up protected areas for oil drilling and coal mining.

The thrust of the energy recommendations could be seen today in the initial reactions: satisfaction from industry, consternation from conservationists.

"It's balanced -- I think it has something for everybody and it addresses the problems that should be addressed," said Thomas E. Capps, chairman of Dominion Resources Inc., the Richmond energy company that is Virginia's largest electricity supplier. "California has an energy crisis now. The rest of the country is going to have one unless something is done."

Industry representatives voiced few if any objections; at a White House briefing, an administration official took a lengthy pause when asked if any part of the report would disappoint industry. "That's a good point," he said, noting tax credits that go to conservation rather than oil and gas.

Leading environmental groups held a joint news conference in Washington to denounce Bush's proposal, which they said would spoil natural resources but do little to ease the short-term energy shortage. They unveiled a television ad featuring a mock auctioneer selling the nation's resources to the highest bidder. And they argued that Bush's plan, by increasing reliance on fossil fuels, would increase global warming emissions by 35 percent over 20 years.

Environmentalists were particularly miffed that the plan ties the few benefits conservationists sought to more controversial elements such as expanding drilling on public land. "In what is a truly cruel joke, the Bush plan would also use oil revenues from the Arctic refuge to pay for land protection and renewable energy programs," said William H. Meadows, president of the Wilderness Society. "That's like burning your furniture to heat your home."

Objections came from government watchdogs too. The libertarian Cato Institute argued that the administration "is simply positioning itself to take credit for what the market is already busily accomplishing." Cato analyst Jerry Taylor said the nation is in a power plant construction boom, with 90,000 megawatts of new capacity to be available by 2002 and as much as 200,000 megawatts by 2004. "This will not only burst the electricity price bubble but will probably produce an electricity glut in the near future," Taylor said. He decried a "smorgasbord of handouts and subsidies for virtually every energy lobby in Washington."

On Capitol Hill, reactions to Bush's proposals fell predictably along party lines. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) pledged to start hearings immediately on the plan, which he praised as well-balanced. "I believe it meets the goals most important to the American people by increasing our energy supplies, providing price stability and protecting our precious environment," he said in a statement.

House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), on the other hand, held an elaborate news conference in the Capitol with other Democrats that featured a satellite connection to three San Diego residents facing rising energy prices. "We think the president's plan makes the wrong choices for America and the American people," Gephardt declared in front of projected images of a gas pump and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "It was crafted behind closed doors with a lot of input from energy executives, and in a highly secretive way that doesn't serve the public interest." Democrats say they view the issue as one of the GOP's top vulnerabilities in the months to come.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said he wants to begin hearings on one big energy policy bill next week. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.), whose panel will move much of the energy-related legislation, predicted his committee would take up conservation measures first and then move to the question of supply. In the coming months, Tauzin said, Congress will take steps to allow consumers to sell power back to their local energy grids, urge the auto industry to adopt stricter fuel efficiency standards and promote better transmission technologies.

Bush is the first president since Jimmy Carter in 1979 to ask Americans to think about their energy supply, and the tones were as different as the times. Carter proposed a windfall profits tax for oil companies and asked citizens to follow the speed limit, drive 15 fewer miles a week and carpool once a week. Bush declared, "Conservation doesn't have to mean doing without. Thanks to technology, it can mean doing better and smarter and cheaper."

The plan leaves many issues to be hashed out. For instance, it directs Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to "propose comprehensive electricity legislation" that promotes competition while protecting consumers. It directs Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta to consider higher fuel-economy standards for new vehicles, but said they must "increase efficiency without negatively impacting the U.S. automotive industry."

Before Bush's speech, he toured a power plant that runs off natural gas, low-sulfur coal and wood waste. In his energy report, the page with a message from Vice President Cheney is stamped "Printed on Recyclable Paper," and the plan is larded with color photos that include an oil derrick bathed by a fiery sunset, a fly-fisherman in a red plaid shirt with a snow-capped mountain behind him, and a farm family bounding through a hayfield toward a combine.

Bush drew applause from the crowd, which had been selected by a local business group, when he called on his critics to work with him. "Just as we need a new tone in Washington, we also need a new tone in discussing energy and the environment -- one that is less suspicious, less punitive, less rancorous," he said. "We've yelled at each other enough. Now it's time to listen to each other, and act."

Still, Bush could see signs of the struggle to come in the energy debate between industry and environmentalists. He was met here by demonstrators with signs saying, "I Breathe and I Vote," and "Got Oil?"

Milbank reported from Washington. Staff writers Juliet Eilperin and Peter Behr contributed to this report.

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