In true Clintonian fashion, Hillary figures her best defense is a strong offense. You can almost guarantee the exact opposite of what Hillary claims happened, happened.
Hillary Sided With Anti-Energy Enviro-nuts
Saturday, Aug. 16, 2003 1:49 p.m. EDT
newsmax.com
Electrical outlets had barely cooled Thursday night when New York Sen. Hillary Clinton took to the airwaves to blame the Bush administration for causing the nation's worst blackout ever.
Given her outraged tones, however, one would never know that she's been a leader in opposing energy independence for New York state, preferring instead to champion environmental cause celebres like fighting acid rain and closing the Indian Point nuclear plant.
At times Sen. Clinton's rhetoric bordered on the hysterical as she fought to make it more difficult for energy suppliers to meet New Yorkers' growing demand for their product.
Last year, for instance, Clinton slammed a Bush administration proposal to allow utilities to upgrade their plants by relaxing a few of the more punishing environmental regulations.
She warned of "dirtier air and rising temperatures" that would expose citizens "to increased childhood asthma rates, higher sea levels and more acid rain and mercury-tainted fish."
In contrast, her 2000 Senate opponent, then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, was arguing that New York needed more power plants as far back as 1999.
"If we don't increase significantly the amount of power in the city of New York, we will have happen to us what happened in California," he warned, after a blackout in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan.
USA Today reported at the time:
"New York City and Long Island could face power shortages because of limited connections to the state's power grid. The city is 400 megawatts short of what it needs during peak usage. The New York Power Authority plans to set up 10 small generators – turbines that provide 44 megawatts each – at existing power substations."
The paper went on to note, however, that "environmentalists opposed to the noise and pollution from these generators fired by natural gas have challenged the plan. Businesses with emergency generators are being asked to supply their own power during times of high electricity demand."
Fifty million Americans got an up close and personal look Thursday night at how well the Greenies' energy backup plan worked.
Still, as recently as two weeks ago, Sen. Clinton was working to limit New York state's electrical generating capacity, joining with the enviro-nuts in a bid to shut down the Indian Point nuclear plant.
In a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the former first lady said that she was "deeply disturbed" over the agency's decision to recertify Indian Point over the objections of local nuclear power critics.
Luckily for New Yorkers, FEMA ignored Hillary's complaints, and the plant is expected to be up and running again by Monday.
In the meantime, New York's top anti-energy Democrat continues to complain about Bush administration attempts to boost the nation's power output through deregulation.
"They have continued to try to push deregulation and privatization," she told Larry King as New York slipped into darkness two nights ago. "And to try to undo a lot of the systems [and] changes that many of us thought were important and necessary that we tried to work on during the Clinton administration."
According to at least one account, however, even her husband was a booster of deregulation. What's more, President Clinton reportedly planned to use increasingly frequent blackouts as a strategy to build support for his plan.
"So long as White House air conditioners continue to whirr, President Clinton – who would like deregulation to be an accomplishment of his second term – can afford to sit back and let the political temperature rise," reported London's Independent in 1999. "The hope seems to be that the worse things get, the more pressure will mount on Congress to legislate."
The Independent added:
"[Clinton's] adviser on deregulation, Richard Glick, said this week almost cheerfully: 'We're going to see a couple of tough summers.'"
So far, at least, reporters have declined to question Sen. Clinton about her husband's deliberate plan to leave the U.S. vulnerable to the kind of massive power outage that left eight states in chaos this week. |
