 
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Critics call Bush plan dirty, dangerous
Tuesday, July 17, 2001
By Don Hopey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
The 25-foot-long, silver bullet-shaped Airstream trailer parked along a curb in Market Square yesterday morning looked like the summer vacation home of a family that had lost its way. In fact, it was a stainless steel example of alternative, energy-efficient technologies and a backdrop to the start of daylong protests by environmental and public health groups against the appearance in Monroeville of Vice President Dick Cheney and a Bush administration energy plan they say has taken a wrong turn.
"The Bush energy plan is dirty, dangerous and doesn't deliver for the consumer. It does nothing to address either high gasoline prices or rising utility bills," Morgan Sheets, energy campaign director for the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group, told a morning crowd of about 50 people that assembled near the Airstream.
The Downtown appearance of the round-shouldered, classically aerodynamic trailer, retrofitted by the National Environmental Trust with eight rooftop, solar panels that power its computer, lights, air conditioning and refrigerator-freezer, was the trailer's fourth stop on a 27-city nationwide tour that began last week in Maine.
It was timed to coincide with Cheney's visit, part of the administration's efforts to promote its energy plan through a series of photo opportunities and by-invitation-only town meetings in 20 cities yesterday. Other boosters speaking for the plan included U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta in Cleveland, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham in Chicago and Interior Secretary Gale Norton in South Dakota.
Sheets called on U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods, who appeared with Cheney, U.S. Sens. Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Gov. Tom Ridge on the Boyce Campus of Allegheny County Community College, to co-sponsor a vehicle fuel efficiency bill that would raise the miles per gallon minimum to 30.
"That could save consumers $60 million at the pumps and each year save more than 15 times the amount of oil under Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where the administration wants to drill," Sheets said.
John Hanger, a former member of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and president of PennFuture, a statewide environmental group, challenged the administration's claims of an energy crisis and said its energy plan props up old, pollution-causing energy sources -- coal, oil and nuclear -- while slashing funding for cleaner, renewable energy like wind, solar and fuel cell technology.
"Worst of all, the plan shortchanges the fastest, surest and cleanest way to prevent any future energy crisis and today's environmental crisis -- conservation and energy efficiency," Hanger said.
Bush's energy plan calls for a 29 percent cut for 2002 in energy efficiency research, development and deployment programs conducted by the Department of Energy.
Jonathan Sinker, a policy analyst with the Clean Air Council, said the Bush energy plan "pays lip service" to alternative energy source development but only commits funding increases to fossil fuel production, including support for oil, coal and gas exploration in environmentally sensitive areas.
"The answer to the United States energy needs lies in energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy," Sinker said. "Having an energy policy that relies on fossil fuel is a giant step backward for the United States."
As part of their campaign against the Bush energy plan, the environmental groups ran television commercials throughout the day in Pittsburgh and other cities and staged a demonstration at the site of Cheney's speech.
PennFuture also paid for an airplane to trail a banner saying, "Conservation works big time," while circling the community college campus. But late yesterday afternoon, federal officials restricted the airspace over the vice president's meeting site, so the plane flew its message over Downtown between 6 and 7 p.m.
About 200 people turned up at the Boyce campus to protest Vice President Cheney's appearance and the Bush administration's energy policy. (Gabor Degre/Post-Gazette)