gao, yes he is a libertarian and I don't agree with some of his positions. But he's honest in his belief's and he does capture the The Essence of the Hildebeast.
Nice interview.
The Cheney Interview: Urging a Sane Energy Policy
newsmax.com
Michael Savage
Thursday, April 26, 2001
Radio host Michael Savage interviewed Vice President
Dick Cheney on Wednesday.
SAVAGE: Mr. Cheney, how do we educate the
environmental movement folk that even in green France,
they derive about 78 percent of their energy from
nuclear power, while we in the U.S. derive only 20
percent of our power from nuclear reactors?
CHENEY: Well, that's a key point, Michael. I think we
ought to do more in terms of nuclear. I think it is an
effective power source; it's increasingly economical,
especially with gas prices as high as they are today.
But there are also sound environmental reasons why it
makes sense to go with nuclear power. If you go with
nuclear power plants, you don't have the kind of
greenhouse gas emissions that everybody's concerned
about in connection with global warming. So there are
sound environmental reasons why nuclear makes sense.
And you're right, the French derive nearly 80 percent of
their power from nuclear power, and they do it in a very
safe fashion.
SAVAGE: But what amazes me, Mr. Vice President, is
that here we have the image that somehow Europe is
more green than America, and even the extremists in
Europe are deriving much of their power from nuclear
energy.
America has Alaska. Alaska is still a possession of the
U.S. We have this amazing reserve of natural gas up in
ANWR. I would love for you to tell the listeners of the
Savage Nation what percent of that reserve would
actually be affected by drilling.
CHENEY: Well, if you look at the ANWR, it's about 19
million acres. That's about the size of South Carolina.
We think we could develop that, because it's really only
an area along the coast. The whole 19 million acres is
really not of interest from an energy standpoint. The
area along the coast is. And we think that the total
amount of disturbance for the total 19 million acres that
would be required is only about 2,000 acres, an area
roughly half the size of Dulles National Airport.
So the fact is that our technology has gotten very good
so that we're able now with directional drilling to reach
out several miles in any different direction, and develop
and exploit resources underground without ever having
much of a footprint on the surface.
Plus Alaska, in that part of Alaska, the way we do it now
is to go in and build roads in the wintertime. In effect,
these are ice roads, and they melt in the summertime,
and there's no trace left of them. It's a very temporary
kind of arrangement.
SAVAGE: You know, Mr. Cheney, this reminds me of a
revisit to the Alaskan pipeline argument of the 1970s
where we were told that it would disrupt the caribou. I
understand that the caribou love the heat from the
Alaskan pipeline, and there are more caribou today than
there were then.
CHENEY: Last time I landed at Prudhoe Bay, our plane
had to circle a couple of times because there were
bears on the runway.
SAVAGE: OK, drill for bears; if we want more bears we
need more drilling. I'm very serious, though, it seems to
me that there is a balance that can be reached and
achieved between our needs for energy. Let's face it,
we need it, and that means the greens need it too. In
order to fly to Quebec they need jet fuel.
We all need it whether we are left, right or center. And
we want to be less reliant on foreign sources of oil, yet
we're blessed with some natural resources that we're
not using. I think that's the administration's main
challenge, to get that message across.
CHENEY: Well, it is, and it's important for people to
recognize that we want to make certain that we proceed
in an environmentally sound fashion.
There isn't anyone, even in the oil industry these days,
that wants to go in and ruin the environment; that's
absolutely shortsighted. There's no benefit in that to
anyone; everyone wants to be a good steward, and we
do have the kind of technology now that lets us do it
without having to make this false choice of either you
have energy or you have a clean environment, when in
fact you can do both.
SAVAGE: You know, Mr. Cheney, I must tell you this,
that for the last few days on the Savage Nation, I've
been noting that Senator Lieberman has suddenly
become an ardent environmentalist, and I guess that's
because he did do one outdoor press conference
during his campaign. And I guess he got a real
attachment to the environment when he was standing on
that red carpet.
But how is it that for eight years there was no problem
with arsenic in our water, and all of a sudden they've
discovered that our babies are about to die from arsenic
in our water supplies?
CHENEY: Arsenic is a naturally occurring substance in
the water. The question is how much is acceptable from
a health standpoint.
The old standard is 50 parts per billion. The new
standard probably ought to be somewhat below that,
but the Clinton administration popped out a regulation
at the very tail end of 10 parts per billion. And that may
be lower than it needs to be, and it's important to get it
right, because if you force a community to go below
where they really need to be, a lot of them will make a
decision simply not to spend the money.
You'll end up with people taking water from other
sources, and they may well end up with more arsenic in
their water than if you set a reasonable standard that
they could achieve at a decent cost. So there will be
some modification in the standard. It will go down. Right
now, the EPA is reviewing all the sides before they make
a decision as to whether it ought to be 15 or 20 or
where it ought to be set, but it will be less than 50 parts
per billion.
SAVAGE: By the way, Vice President Cheney, this
issue of global warming and the supposed dissent
between Christie Todd Whitman and the White House
doesn't make any sense to me. I've studied the issue. I
am a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley,
and I have to mention that because most people in radio
are really ignorant of the facts.
I haven't seen any evidence that there is any evidence
for global warming. I'm sure you agree with me on that.
CHENEY: Well, what we're doing now, the president set
up a task force to look at this whole question. We've
got a good part of the Cabinet now reviewing all the
science, calling in experts with various perspectives and
points of view, hearing what everybody's got to say on
this question. And there are questions about what
exactly is happening and questions about what causes
it.
There does appear to be some warming in the
atmosphere. On the other hand, whether or not this is
caused by man or is a result of natural factors at this
point is the big debate. But we are taking a careful look
at it. We do have an obligation to conduct ourselves in a
safe and sane fashion here, and that's one of the areas
we are reviewing.
SAVAGE: One last question, if I may. Mexico is
certainly not in the same category as Iraq, Iran or Libya,
yet all have tremendous oil supplies. We have sanctions
on some of them. Mexican oil is in abundance. Do you
think we are going to see new supplies coming out of
Mexico?
CHENEY: Well, I would hope so. Mexico, of course,
though, has a special political history, and that is they
nationalized the oil industry many years ago, and they
don't allow any outside private investment in their oil
industry. Everything has to be developed by Pemex, the
state oil company. There has been some discussion of
the possibility that they might allow some outside
investors to come in and help develop their natural gas
supplies, and that's still being looked at.
It's a tough problem for the government of Mexico
given the political history there. They do produce a lot
of oil; we do import some oil from Mexico. They could
do even more if they would encourage some of the
private companies to come in and bring in their
technology and their capital to invest. But they've
always felt they want to retain national ownership of
those assets and not allow anybody from outside to
invest, and that's the way they operate.
SAVAGE: What about Libya, Iraq and Iran? I understand
that you, Mr. Vice President, said that we need to lift or
lighten sanctions with these nations in order to create a
trade agreement for oil. Is that a good idea?
CHENEY: I have not specifically recommended that at
this point. We've got a recommendation that we are
looking at in the State Department that we should
review the sanctions policy on Iran, Iraq and Libya. I
think you have to look at each one of them differently.
Iraq is a special case. You have multilateral sanctions,
which the international community generally supports.
They are allowed to sell oil in order to purchase food
and medical supplies for their people with Iran. There
are currently sanctions in place that prohibit the
investment by U.S. firms of significant sums of money in
their oil industry, and Libya is also under sanctions
because of their alleged involvement in Pan Am 103
back in 1988-89.
So each one of those has to be looked at in isolation.
They're all oil producers, they're all selling on the
international market, but the president has made it clear
at this stage that he has no plans to lift the sanctions on
any of those countries.
SAVAGE: Is there anything that I can do in California
and the rest of the nation to educate the public with
regard to our need to drill? I'm an ardent
conservationist. I've spent years in the rain forests
saving them, but for God's sake, there seems to be a
disconnect between reality and fantasy when it comes
to energy.
CHENEY: You do a lot just providing a forum where we
can have a good discussion. We really need to have this
debate. It's important for us to recognize what the
trade-offs are, but also to recognize that if we put our
minds to it and invest in the right way, there is no reason
in the world why we can't protect our environment and
make sure we have the energy we need for a healthy,
robust economy.
SAVAGE: Mr. Vice President, thank you very much for
joining us on the Savage Nation.
CHENEY: Thank you.
.........
Tom watson tosiwmee |
