Gore energy plan looks well into future
Copyright 2000, United Press International
Wednesday, June 28, 2000
By Hil Anderson, UPI chief energy correspondent
Wind plants, such as this one in California's Altamont Pass, and other renewable energy sources play an important role in Vice President Al Gore's energy plan.
Vice President Al Gore looked into the future Tuesday when he called for the development of technology that will lead to a new generation of cleaner and more efficient power systems that will provide more electricity and less air pollution.
Rather than tackle the more immediate issues of rising gasoline prices and the looming possibility of a winter crunch in heating oil supplies, Gore instead unveiled a vision of a future in which fuel cells, natural gas and renewable energy sources provide environmentally friendly, inexpensive energy with little need for crude oil purchased on the volatile world market.
"It is an old, timid way of thinking to build our lives and livelihoods around a fuel source that is distant, uncertain, and easily manipulated; it is a new, bold way of thinking to demand and develop new technologies to free ourselves from gas-tank price-gouging," Gore said Tuesday in a speech in Philadelphia.
As opposed to George W. Bush and other Republican supporters of the oil industry on Capitol Hill, Gore made no call for regulatory changes that would increase the amount of oil produced domestically, nor did he make any reference to the current flap over reformulated gasoline specifications that the oil industry has said is partly to blame for soaring Midwest pump prices.
The vice president instead subscribed to the theory that the United States is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will at last wean the nation off the diet rich in imported oil that has sustained it during the 20th century.
"Just over the horizon is a future where you can cool your home in the summer, drive your car to pick up the kids after school, and light up your backyard for an evening barbecue — all without using a single drop of oil or gasoline, all without lowering the quality of the air your children breathe," Gore said.
Gore proposed using money from the projected federal budget surplus to pay for the development of new technologies, mass transit and infrastructure projects — and tax incentives to encourage consumers to take the plunge and purchase solar power units for their homes and for the new generation of vehicles.
Vice President Gore says the United States is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will wean the nation off its diet rich in imported oil.
The program would be under the umbrella of the National Energy Security and Environment Trust Fund, and would provide funding on the order of $73 billion over 10 years for public and private research, plus $2 billion over 10 years to improve the national power grid.
"I'm proposing that we invest in even more of this kind of innovation and industry." Gore said, "that we cut taxes so families and small businesses can afford to buy the cars and products of the future, and that we work with private industry to develop not just a new generation of vehicles, but a new generation of light rail and mass transit, and a new generation of cleaner, more reliable power systems."
Much of the vice president's emphasis Tuesday was on electric power, which is entering a new era of deregulation and potentially nationwide competition for supplies. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, when not lobbying OPEC for more oil, has spent a good deal of time this year urging Congress to pass electricity restructuring legislation designed to remove regulatory bottlenecks and improve the ability of power to flow from one region of the nation to another as the demand necessitates.
Gore would like to make smaller so-called distributed power plants a part of the overall generation mix, plus improve the efficiency of the transmission lines so that less power is lost as it travels from power plant to end user.
While renewable power sounds good theoretically — and may soon be economically competitive — Gore recognized that natural gas and coal are still major sources of power production. He said Tuesday that his plan would include incentives for natural gas exploration, plus the updating of aging power plants, many of them coal burners, so that they produce power more efficiently and with fewer polluting emissions.Gore pledged to keep Washington's involvement in the plan to a minimum, and to set "common-sense standards," while allowing the private sector to carry the ball.
"There will be no new bureaucracies, no new agencies or organizations, because the era of old government is over," he declared. "But it is America's innovators and entrepreneurs, investors and working men and women who will forge the real solutions — not the federal government."