Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 21, 1991                   TAG: 9102210120
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From Cox News Service and The Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

NEW ENERGY PLAN: FIND MORE FUEL

The policy, which relies partly on developing energy leases on the Outer Continental Shelf, would increase America's available supply of oil, coal, natural gas and other fuels by the equivalent of 3.8 million barrels of oil a day by 2010, according to the Department of Energy.

Energy Secretary James Watkins said it would be a "great tragedy" if the continental shelf areas are not developed after 2000, when a presidential deferral on drilling expires.

The plan also would call for:

Accelerated use of clean-coal technology.

Renewed development of nuclear power.

Opening the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration.

Faster deregulation of natural gas.

Overhauling electric-utility regulation to increase competition for wholesale power and promote renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.

Requiring "cost effective energy efficiency standards" in the construction of new buildings subsidized by federal funds or federally insured mortgages.

Bush called the collection of policy proposals "a strategy for an energy future that is secure, efficient and environmentally sound."

A chorus of conservation groups and their supporters in Congress condemned it.

"This plan is no more balanced than the federal budget," said James L. Wolf, executive director of the Alliance to Save Energy, a coalition of environmental groups, labor unions and industries. "Its biggest deficit is the failure to include sufficient initiatives to promote energy efficiency and conservation."

Sen. Al Gore, D-Tenn., one of Congress' most vocal advocates of energy efficiency measures, said President Bush was "taking a wrong turn and he's trying to take the country with him. This is a dead-end energy policy."

The National Coal Association said: "Overall, we are pleased with the emphasis that has been placed on the production and adequate supply of domestic energy."

The Natural Resources Defense Council, however, was critical: "It is bad energy policy, bad economic policy, bad environmental policy and bad foreign policy."

Missing from the proposal was any plan to mandate increased automobile fuel efficiency, a key goal of energy conservationists, who contend that since the primary use of oil in the United States is for transportation, that is the only area where meaningful conservation can be achieved.