| Vice President Cheney 2001 Energy Plan |
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05/01/2001 -
Cheney's energy plan focuses on production
By Richard Benedetto, USA TODAY
Vice President Cheney offered a preview Monday of a Bush administration energy plan that will be long on increased development of domestic oil, natural gas and nuclear power, but short on conservation.
Also missing will be what he called "quick fixes which never fix anything": price controls, use of strategic reserves and new federal agencies.
Among Cheney's proposals:
• Increased domestic production of crude oil.
• Stepped-up construction of natural gas pipelines.
• Massive expansion of the electrical power grid.
• Renewed construction of nuclear, hydroelectric, oil- and coal-fired power plants.
Cheney, a former oil services company executive, called alternative fuels such as ethanol or solar power promising but still "years down the road."
He said the administration will push for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He said advances in technology drastically reduce the risks of harming the environment. But getting that oil to market will likely be years down the road as well.
"As a country, we have demanded more and more energy. But we have not brought on line the supplies needed to meet that demand," the vice president said.
The plan was called "shortsighted" and "leaning too heavily to the oil side" by Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Ill., a member of the House subcommittee on energy. "We need to conserve energy and explore alternative fuels such as ethanol and clean-coal technology."
Speaking in Toronto at an annual meeting of the Associated Press, Cheney outlined what may be the most ambitious energy plan since the late 1970s when President Carter promoted conservation to combat Arab oil embargoes.
Cheney said telling Americans to do more with less is not enough. "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy," he said.
Democrats and environmentalists say Cheney's energy plan is more about rewarding contributors to the Bush campaign. Reps. John Dingell of Michigan and Henry Waxman of California have asked federal Comptroller General David Walker to investigate whether private interests are influencing Cheney's Energy Task Force, which has been meeting in secret.
Similar Republican criticism was leveled at the Health Care Reform panel that first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton headed in 1994
Give nuclear power a fresh look
Nuclear power can both solve America’s energy woes and help protect the environment, Vice President Cheney told CNN. The answers, Cheney said, lie in increasing the supply of energy sources -- a policy that would include giving nuclear power “a fresh look.” Cheney said, “It is a safe technology and doesn’t emit any carbon dioxide at all. With the gas prices rising the way they are, nuclear is looking like a good alternative.”
Cheney acknowledged that the problem of nuclear waste was “a tough one” and that the US would need to establish a single location to dump the waste, a program he said has been very successful in Europe. “Right now we’ve got waste piling up at reactors all over the country,” he said. “Eventually, there ought to be a permanent repository.” Cheney foresees an additional 1,300 to 1,900 new power plants over the next 20 years to meet demand -- some of which could be nuclear plants -- along with a number of refineries to process oil.
Source: Interview with CNN’s John King May 8, 2001
Richard Drew, AP
Vice President Dick Cheney's image looms over him as he warned Monday of California-style blackouts.
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