dear richie, you are so funny,
did stupid mr. bill get us here or was it that he relied on the divinity school flunkie to give us 8 years of heads up their butt energy policy???
Abraham: Energy Crisis Threatens
By H. Josef Hebert
Associated Press Writer
Monday, March 19, 2001; 1:25 p.m. EST
WASHINGTON -- Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Monday
the country is facing the most serious energy shortages since the
1970s. Without a solution, he said, the energy crisis will threaten
prosperity and national security and change the way Americans live.
Abraham, in a speech hours before a special energy task force was
to l make recommendations to President Bush, said California's power
problems are neither isolated nor temporary and could spread to
other parts of the country, including the Northeast.
"The power crisis isn't just pinching our wallets, it's changing the way
we live our lives," Abraham said in a speech described by aides as
his most comprehensive assessment of the country's energy
concerns since becoming energy secretary.
Abraham said the demand for energy "is rising across the board" but
particularly for natural gas and electricity. As he spoke, the Energy
Department also was raising concern of possible gasoline price
spikes this summer.
The department said both crude-oil inventories and gasoline stocks
are 6 percent to 7 percent lower that what they traditionally have been
this time of year.
The estimates came even before calculation of the potential impact of
a decision last week by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries to lower production by 1 million barrels a day.
At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer said Abraham had
communicated with OPEC members before the production cut was
made.
Fleischer said Bush is focused on long-term strategies. "While we
can encourage and should encourage conservation, the most
realistic approach our nation can take, in the president's opinion, is to
increase supplies of energy."
As for tapping the nation's strategic petroleum reserve, Fleischer
said, "The president has never ruled that out, but the president
believes that is an emergency action that should be taken not as a
consequence of supply-and-demand imbalances but in terms of
national security emergencies."
John Cook, chief petroleum analyst for the department's Energy
Information Administration, called the current inventory levels a
disturbing sign for this summer's heavy driving season.
While stocks likely will increase somewhat, "We are beginning the
driving season with very little stock cushion," Cook said in remarks
prepared for an oil refiners' conference in New Orleans.
Abraham, addressing an energy conference sponsored by the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, said the administration is determined to
pursue "a rational balance between our energy needs and our
environmental concerns."
He gave no details about the proposals expected to be presented to
Bush by the energy task force headed by Vice President Dick
Cheney. He said the administration's policy "will stress the need to
diversify America's energy supply."
Abraham said it is a myth that oil companies and power companies
are "engaged in a massive conspiracy to gouge consumers."
"There is no magic source of supply, no hidden pool of energy that
can be turned on and off like a faucet," he declared.
Energy analysts are concerned that this summer will bring not only
another round of power blackouts in California and possibly other
states, as well as increases in the cost of not only electricity, but also
gasoline during the peak summer driving season.
Gasoline prices nationwide for all brands average $1.41 a gallon,
slightly lower than in recent weeks, the Energy Department said.
While the DOE earlier this month predicted prices at the pump this
summer would increase modestly to about $1.49 on average, analysts
said they would not rule out severe price spikes beyond that should
supply problems develop.
Last year gasoline soared past $2 a gallon in some parts of the
country, especially in the Midwest.
In a presentation to the refiners conference, Cook said gasoline
stocks in the Gulf Coast area are nearly 13 percent below the normal
five-year average, and 9 percent lower than at this time last year.
"For crude oil the situation is not much better," said Cook.
Nationwide, he said, crude stocks are 7 percent below the low end of
the normal range for this time of year.
While the impact of OPEC's latest production cuts is not expected to
show up in the U.S. market for six to eight weeks, it is likely to
aggravate stock supplies even more, analysts said.
washingtonpost.com
tom watson tosiwmee |
