Bush Changing Tune On Conservation Issue
by Ken Fireman
Washington Bureau
Washington - The Bush administration, which sailed into office dismissing conservation as a "personal virtue" that could not solve the nation's energy problems, has changed its rhetorical course 180 degrees in the face of stiff political head winds.
Yesterday, even as the administration formally transmitted to Congress an energy agenda still heavily weighted toward increased production, President George W. Bush was talking up conservation during a visit to the Energy Department.
An approving Bush was shown a display of energy-efficient cars and trucks that use hybrid engines or alternative fuel sources-exactly the kind of technology Bush routinely derided during last year's presidential campaign when his Democratic opponent, Al Gore, was promoting it.
Then, in a speech to an audience of department employees, the president decried the prevalence of "vampires"-electrical appliances that consume small amounts of power even while turned off-and named Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham "the new vampire slayer." Bush said the federal government would lead the way by purchasing computers, copiers, fax machines and other electrical equipment outfitted with devices to limit the amount of power consumed while switched off or on standby.
"Vampire" electrical usage, Bush said, accounts for about 4 percent of the total power consumed in an average U.S. home. Completely eliminating the problem, he said, would save about 52 billion kilowatt hours of power a year, the equivalent of the output of 26 average-sized power plants.
Later, the administration endorsed a recent House committee action restoring $285 million for energy efficiency and renewable energy research that had been cut from the budget in Bush's original spending proposal.
Bush's paean to a conservation ethic that Vice President Dick Cheney had derided in April as little more than "a sign of personal virtue" generated its own power surge from the faxes and computers of administration critics.
They accused Bush of using conservation as glossy green packaging to sell a program that serves the interests of the energy industry at the public expense by supporting drilling for oil in the Alaskan wilderness, increasing reliance on nuclear power and removing regulatory barriers on gas, oil and coal production.
"The real energy vampires are the oil, coal and utility companies," said Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust. "If the president wants to be a vampire slayer, he ought to be taking them on rather than championing their cause." White House spokesman Ari Fleischer denied that any deception was involved...snip
newsday.com
I expect Dubya to have a sweater wearing fireside chat this Fall about the need to conserve energy by turning down the thermostat. Wasn't this the same guy who criticized Clinton for governing by reading the polls, something that he said he wouldn't ever do?
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