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Enron Mail |
Senate Majority Leader Eager to Push Energy, Environmental Issues =09 James Kuhnhenn =09 =09 =09 07/06/2001 =09 KRTBN Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News: Knight Ridder's Washington Burea= u =09 =09 =09 =09 Copyright (C) 2001 KRTBN Knight Ridder Tribune Business News; Source: World= Reporter (TM) =09 =09 =09 =09 WASHINGTON--Eager to exploit public dissatisfaction with President Bush's a= pproach to energy and the environment, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle w= ants to place those issues next on the Democratic agenda, before other init= iatives popular with Democrats. Daschle's aides and party strategists say = the Senate's top Democrat wants to keep the White House on the defensive, d= raw attention to popular Democratic goals such as promoting conservation an= d alternate power sources, and inoculate his party against Republicans' cha= rges that it has ignored the country's energy needs. Activists on both side= s see potential for compromises that would lead to legislation Bush can sig= n. =09 =09 "With summer, and gas prices, and air conditioning -- this is what you g= o with," said Democratic pollster Fred Yang. "It's an issue that people act= ually live every day. There are very few issues like that in politics." De= mocrats think the energy issue has become an albatross for the White House.= Recent polls show that a majority of the public disapproves of the way Bus= h is handling energy and environmental issues. What's more, the House of R= epresentatives voted to block the administration from drilling for oil and = gas off Florida's gulf coast and in the Great Lakes. Both measures passed w= ith support from 70 Republicans. "When the Republican-controlled House sou= ndly rejects key components of the president's energy policy, it signals an= opportunity to build a bipartisan consensus that begins in the center," sa= id Daschle spokeswoman Anita Dunn. The decision to highlight energy policy= came late last week after Daschle met privately with his chairmen of key c= ommittees. Democrats present also called for action on raising the minimum = wage, hate-crimes legislation, a prescription-drug plan for seniors and oth= er issues popular with their supporters. But concentrating on energy polic= y first gives Democrats an opportunity to seize what has been a Republican = issue and turn it to their advantage, aides said. Bush and Vice President = Dick Cheney are dogged by their backgrounds as former Texas oilmen. From th= e moment Cheney argued for more oil and gas production to satisfy the energ= y needs of the United States, Democrats portrayed Bush and him as beholden = to special interests. "The White House and Republicans are in the 35 perce= nt end of public opinion on this," a top Democratic leadership aide, who sp= oke on condition of anonymity, said this week. "It's a loser every day for = the Republicans." With that in mind, Daschle and Sen. Jeff Bingaman, the N= ew Mexico Democrat who heads the Senate's energy and natural resources comm= ittee, plan to have a comprehensive energy bill ready by the end of July. I= t will be a full- scale alternative to the Bush-Cheney program unveiled in = May. The first floor disputes on energy policy could occur as early as nex= t week, when the Senate debates the spending bill for the Interior Departme= nt. Republicans and White House lobbyists will have their hands full fendin= g off Democratic amendments to match the House bans on offshore drilling ne= ar Florida beaches and on national monument lands. The White House helped = defuse some of the oil-exploration dispute earlier this week by scaling bac= k its plans to drill in the Gulf of Mexico. But huge disagreements remain o= ver drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a centerpiece of = Bush's energy plan. Some Democrats intend to offer an amendment to the Inte= rior spending bill that would prohibit drilling in the refuge. Democrats a= lso want to highlight energy conservation and lower emissions of pollutants= that contribute to global warming. One proposal, which combines conservati= on and anti- pollution goals, would raise gas-mileage requirements for spor= t utility vehicles. The National Academy of Sciences is studying fuel econo= my standards and is expected to issue recommendations to Congress later thi= s month. The energy debate also splits Senate Republicans, giving Daschle = extra manpower to challenge Bush. Democrats can count on New England Republ= icans such as Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Olympia Snowe and Susan Co= llins, both of Maine, to back several Democratic initiatives. Sen. John Mc= Cain, R-Ariz., who already has opposed Bush on the patients' bill of rights= and campaign finance legislation, also has said he favors more conservatio= n measures than the White House proposes. "He'll be very prominent in cobb= ling a centrist coalition on the issue," said Marshall Wittman, a senior fe= llow at the conservative Hudson Institute research center and a political a= dviser to McCain. "You can already see the outlines of that proposal -- enc= ouragement of conservation, some exploration, but everything is environment= ally friendly." The White House already has reacted to the criticism of it= s energy policies. Its budget proposal earlier this year cut research spend= ing for renewable energy, but Bush restored some of the money later. He als= o has paid more attention to energy conservation, indicating support for sp= ending on efficiency measures beyond what he sought in his budget. But the= president is not backing away from his position that the United States nee= ds to become less dependent on foreign oil. And that, White House officials= say, requires more oil and gas exploration in the United States. The energ= y plan Bush sent to Congress last week would authorize drilling in the Alas= kan wilderness refuge and would use money from the drilling leases to pay f= or research into alternative energy sources. In addition to public disappr= oval of his stands on the environment and energy, the president is losing t= he sense of urgency that initially accompanied his energy proposals. Rollin= g blackouts in California are on the wane, gasoline prices are falling and = last week John Browne, the chief executive of BP oil, dismissed Bush's call= for new oil refineries. That gives Democrats a chance to seize the issue = and attack the president without competing pressure from the public for qui= ck solutions. "It's a target of opportunity," said Burdett Loomis, a polit= ical scientist at the University of Kansas and an expert on the Senate. Lik= e the patients' bill of rights, on which the public sided with Democrats, e= nergy right now "is low-hanging fruit," he said. =09
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