Cheney says to heck with the environment........read on: Cheney calls for increased oil
drilling in Alaska
September 24, 2000
Web posted at: 3:25 p.m. EDT (1925 GMT)
In this story:
'A pollution policy'
'More dependent than ever'
Cheney: Clinton performed a 'charade'
'Not meant to manipulate'
National energy policy
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republican vice presidential
candidate Dick Cheney said Sunday the United States
ought to boost its oil production by expanding drilling in
Alaska and building more refineries.
Cheney, who left a lucrative post with a Texas
oil-services company to join the GOP ticket, suggested
some environmental standards might have to be relaxed
to accomplish that goal.
"If you're not going
to develop our
domestic resources,
you'd better get used
to liking Iraqi oil,"
Cheney said on
"CNN's Late Edition."
"You get to the point
here where you can't
have it both ways,"
Cheney said.
'A pollution policy'
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Tom Harkin,
D-Iowa, said Republican policies would only increase
dependence on oil and said Cheney's proposal of
expanded drilling was not the answer to the expected
heating oil shortage.
"That is not an energy policy," Harkin said. "That is a
pollution policy."
Harkin expressed skepticism about Cheney's statement
that he would not support expanded oil drilling off the
environmentally sensitive California coast.
"I don't trust him on the coastlines," Harkin said.
Cheney said he would support legislation to "free up"
anti-drilling regulations in Alaska's Arctic Natural
Wildlife Refuge, which environmentalists want to keep
off-limits to drilling.
He also called for reducing "bureaucratic red tape" to
allow more oil refineries to be built, saying a new one
had not been constructed in the United States in 10
years.
'More dependent than ever'
Appearing also on Fox News Sunday, Cheney was
asked whether the government should relax
environmental standards to allow the construction of
more refineries.
"I think you've got to go look at them and see whether
or not that's appropriate," Cheney said. "The bottom line
is, without additional crude and without additional
refinery capacity, we've become more dependent than
ever before on foreign sources. This administration has
allowed that to happen."
Cheney: Clinton performed a 'charade'
Cheney also joined a host of other Republicans who
have criticized the Clinton administration decision on
Friday to tap into the nation's Strategic Petroleum
Reserve, a supply intended for emergency use only.
On Saturday Clinton defended his decision to release 30
million barrels of oil as "prudent" to guard against a
projected shortage this winter of higher-priced heating
oil.
Cheney called Clinton's action a "charade," saying there
was no guarantee the additional oil would reduce prices.
He dismissed the decision as a political ploy to benefit
the Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Al
Gore.
"They're now using it to try to buy him some relief in
terms of the campaign this fall," Cheney said on "Late
Edition."
'Not meant to manipulate'
But Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, appearing Sunday
on NBC's "Meet the Press," defended Clinton.
Richardson explained that Clinton's reserve release was
not meant to manipulate oil prices but to increase this
winter's supply of heating oil.
Clinton, Richardson added, might also call for more oil
to be tapped from the reserve. "I think, after 30 days, an
assessment will be made," he said.
Stocks of home-heating oil are particularly low in the
Northeast, Richardson said, down 65 percent from
what they were last year.
Richardson welcomed the $3 to $4 drop in the price of
a barrel of oil since Friday, saying: "The main objective
was to ensure we had adequate stocks this winter."
National energy policy
Also appearing on NBC, Gov. Tom Ridge,
R-Pennsylvania, called Clinton's decision to tap the
reserve "politics as usual ... The bottom line is we don't
have the (refining) capacity to take it from crude."
Ridge said a long-term energy policy, "which this
government doesn't have," is needed to solve the
problem.
Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, responded by accusing
congressional Republicans of blocking Clinton
administration efforts to legislate a national energy
policy.
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