Bush Unveils National Energy Policy

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Power Plan

Bush Unveils National Energy Policy

By Carter M. Yang

W A S H I N G T O N, May 17 - President Bush today unveiled a sweeping plan to expand the nation's capacity to produce energy, warning that California's sky-high gasoline and prices and rolling electrical blackouts could spread across the entire United States.

"If we fail to act, this great country could face a darker future," Bush said today in St. Paul, Minn., after touring the District Energy power plant, which utilizes renewable fuels such as wood chips in addition to conventional fuels like oil and gas. "America needs an energy plan that faces up to our energy challenges and meets them." The 163-page plan released by the White House this morning calls for increasing domestic supplies of oil, gas and coal and boosting production of electric and nuclear power. The supply-oriented strategy advocates opening up public lands to development and easing government regulations in order to promote the construction of new pipelines, refineries, dams and power plants.

"America in the year 2001 faces the most serious energy shortages since the oil embargoes of the 1970s," says the report of the White House National Energy Policy Development Group, which worked for three months under Vice President Dick Cheney to compile the 105 recommendations that comprise the administration's proposed energy policy.

Bush insisted if the steps he outlined are not implemented, the result would be rising energy prices, more blackouts and an increasing dependence on crude oil from overseas.

"America cannot allow that to be our future and we will not," he said.

Democrats Blast Bush Proposals

Though the plan includes a package of tax credits for consumers who purchase fuel-efficient cars or make their homes more energy-efficient and companies that utilize renewable energy sources, Democrats argue the president's policies would be a disaster for the environment.

"The president's plan makes the wrong choices for America and for the American people," House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., said at a press conference on Capitol Hill this morning. "It focuses on drilling and production at the expense of our environment and conservation. And it does nothing to help people who need relief right now."

Appearing on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America today, Democratic National Committee chairman Terrence McAuliffe argued the Bush plan was a boondoggle for big oil.

"If you just look at the makeup of the Bush administration, it is filled from top to bottom with people from the oil industry," McAuliffe said. "When they discussed putting together an energy policy, the people at the table who met in secret were all from the oil industry."

Among the most controversial Bush proposals is a plan to open up a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and other federal lands to oil and gas exploration - measures strongly opposed by environmentalist groups.The task force also recommended exploring the use of so-called "breeder reactors" that use reprocessed nuclear waste to generate energy.

The president defended his proposals today, insisting they could be implemented in an environmentally friendly fashion.

"Too often Americans are asked to take sides between energy production and environmental protection," he said. "The truth is energy production and environmental protection are not competing priorities."

Spelling Relief

Congressional Democrats, who have called for a federal investigation into possible price gouging by oil companies and have proposed wholesale price controls on electricity, today blasted Bush for failing to offer short-term relief.

"Incredibly, we're told we may be heading into a summer of three-dollar-a-gallon gasoline and rolling blackouts, yet the Bush-Cheney plan offers almost no immediate relief for consumers," Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., told reporters on Capitol Hill today.

"[O]ur current energy challenges were not created overnight," countered House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. "If we fail to act on the president's framework, our energy challenges will only get worse and become much harder to fix."

The Bush administration suggested Wednesday that energy prices, including oil prices, would drop as markets react to Bush's call for increased supply.

Energy policy experts, meanwhile, gave the president's plan mixed reviews.

"The new Bush energy policy sets the most realistic near-term goals and priorities of any U.S. energy policy since energy first became a vital economic and security issue following the Arab oil embargo in 1974," says Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

But Cordesman adds: "[I]t does not seriously address the long-term future of energy use and supply … and the environmental issues involved."

The president will continue his effort to build public support for his plan with campaign-style appearances in the city of Nevada, Iowa, this afternoon and Lancaster, Pa., on Friday.

With the latest ABCNEWS poll showing that fewer than four in 10 Americans approve of Bush's handling of the energy situation, the administration has a long way to go in convincing the public that its supply-oriented approach is the right one.

=====

Pacific Northwest Faces Power Crunch

S E A T T L E, May 17 - The Pacific Northwest, facing its worst drought in decades, could see rolling blackouts this winter, a new report says.

The region is expected to have enough power to make it through the summer but could face a shortage during the more energy-demanding winter unless "significant amounts of precipitation occur," the North American Electric Reliability Council said in a report Tuesday.

"We're at the mercy of Mother Nature," said Tim Gallagher, manager of technical services for the industry-sponsored watchdog organization based in Princeton, N.J.

Washington state is experiencing its worst drought since 1977. Utilities are asking customers to conserve energy and some large industrial power users, such as aluminum companies, have shut down. Farmers have been asked to reduce irrigation, and utilities are channeling more water through power-producing turbines and spilling less to aid fish passage.

Under current conditions, the Bonneville Power Administration - the federal power marketing agency that provides half the region's electricity - estimates the likelihood of rolling blackouts this winter at about 15 percent to 20 percent, said BPA spokesman Mike Hansen. The normal systems-reliability standard is about 5 percent, he said.

"It's safe to say we are concerned about fall and winter," said John Harrison, spokesman for the four-state Northwest Power Planning Council, which helps set priorities for regional hydropower use and dam-related wildlife concerns.

— The Associated Press

-- (in@energy.news), May 17, 2001

Answers

ONE HUNDRED and SIXTY THREE pages of what? Same old bs we been hearing for at least 3 freaking decades, wuppity fucking do-do.

If bush had made a single call to the FERC telling them to do their job, would any of this matter for squat? Understand THAT, and one can hopefully understand what this revised ancient history plan is all about.

Course that will never happen as most are morons, thus this latest "plan".

-- (gwredo@ofnixonford.plan), May 17, 2001.


S E A T T L E, May 17 - The Pacific Northwest, facing its worst drought in decades, could see rolling blackouts this winter, a new report says.

The region is expected to have enough power to make it through the summer but could face a shortage during the more energy-demanding winter unless "significant amounts of precipitation occur," the North American Electric Reliability Council said in a report Tuesday.

Bull! In the last three weeks there has been enough rain and snow in the mountains to get us back to normal.

BPA wants to sell power to California at a huge profit like everyone else. The less we use the more they can sell, so they are trying to convince us to conserve. The only problem is, we conserve. Our children are taught to conserve natural resourse and energy from the get go at school, adult still conserve from the past fuel and/or natural resource shortages. For an area known for our rain, we conserve a lot of water. Flow control on shower heads, not running water when not using it, turn water off while brushing teeth. There are new people who have moved here in the past20 years who don't conserve, but they can learn. But the weather has been helpful in ending the drought we were supposidly in a month ago. Guess it will take a while before the NERC gets the news.

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), May 18, 2001.


NOAA's Summer Forecast for Nation Released

. . . .A lack of precipitation in the Northwest, where the summers are usually dry, will provide ``little, to no, relief'' from drought conditions, he added. . . .

. . . .This summer's outlook includes:

-Near-normal temperatures and precipitation in the Pacific Northwest, with no relief from long-term moisture deficits. . . .

-- N (O@A._), May 19, 2001.


Lingering drought in Pacific NW through summer - NOAA

Updated 5:51 PM ET May 17, 2001

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Drought conditions were expected to linger in the Pacific Northwest through August, U.S. weather experts said Thursday, threatening to worsen an energy crisis caused by historically low reservoir and river levels.

-- N (O@A._), May 19, 2001.


Yep it is a supply issue.

Lack of tankers and refiners are in very short supply. Plenty of crude around. The drilling crap, the oil shortage crap is purely for Dubya and his Awl buds to access some cheapass, easily gotten awl is all.

Most Americans know this, but does Dubya care? Course not, he answers to other folks not us.

Piggy is having trouble getting to the market is all.

Gasoline is rising because supply risks have increased. There no longer is any "play" in these markets, thus the fundamental rise. Saudis can drill all they want, but without tankers to deliver it, doubt this will help like it used to.

Bush would do better to break-up some of the logjams(monopolies) in these markets. Course that never gunna happen as he works for these guys, thus the 163 page book of BS he is now selling door-to-door.

-- eyeroller (eyesbe@rolling.org), May 20, 2001.



Monopolies are now essentually legal. HERE

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), May 20, 2001.

Cherri:

I hate to disagree with you [we have often agreed in the distant past], but I must disagree with your statement that recent rain and snow has brought us back to normal.

Unlike Oregon which has many rain fed rivers, rivers in western Washington are mainly snow fed. The biggest river draining in to Puget Sound is the Skagit. It originates in a very "deserty' area. Based on the present data it is nowhere near normal [as I recall it accounts for 20% of the water in the sound].

Look at this Skagit River Valley and look at the data for the Mt Vernon station.

Actually I have not seen it this low in May. This is just the latest data; of course it could change. The experts say no; but they can be as wrong as we have been at times.

Best Wishes,,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), May 20, 2001.


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