Dems already bashing Bush for outage

Fox News ^ | 8-16-03 | Sharon Kehnemui

[jmstein7]

WASHINGTON — Though the power returned within a day to many areas darkened by the historical blackout of 2003 (search), politicians are unlikely to forget the energy issue during the 2004 election.

Less than 24 hours after a power failure set off a cascading effect that left 50 million Northeastern U.S. residents in the dark, at least two presidential candidates accused the Bush administration of failing in its energy policy.

"The unfortunate events on the East Coast, parts of the Midwest and in Canada yesterday are further evidence that the Bush administration is inexorably tied to Persian Gulf oil and old energy, and is incapable of devising a comprehensive, forward-looking energy strategy," Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt (search) said in a statement Friday.

"If it weren't for this administration's obsession with giveaways to their friends in the oil business, Congress likely would have passed an energy bill last year, parts of which were designed to strengthen and modernize the electric grid," said Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry (search).

But political analyst Larry Sabato suggested that President Bush, who has so far been unsuccessful in pushing a comprehensive energy bill through a reluctant Congress, just needs to stay on message to keep his support in 2004.

"I think it's going to be a bumper strip that is going to help President Bush. Where is environmentalism strongest? In the Northeast. Where is the power blackout? In the Northeast. All President Bush has to say on energy policy is, 'Remember the blackout?'" Sabato said.

"He doesn't really have to change the direction he's been going [in] since he was elected -- that we have to increase capacity, that we need to look at alternative forms of energy," said Republican strategist Terry Holt. "And I don't think there are any pitfalls here. I think he just makes the case that the energy capacity in this country needs to be increased."

On Friday, Bush said he has been discussing the need for modernizing the energy industry since before taking office. He added that the legislation he supports addresses the very issue that is suspected of causing the massive power failures -- wildly fluctuating voltage that led transformers to automatically switch off.

"I think part of the plan recognizes that the grid needs to be modernized, that the delivery system needs to be modernized. Obviously, something like this isn't going to happen overnight," Bush said, stopping to speak to reporters as he cleaned hiking trails at San Diego Mountains National Recreation Area.

"But it begins to address the problem that this particular incident has made abundantly clear to the American people -- that we've got an antiquated system and now we've got to figure out what went wrong and how to address it, and I am confident we will," he said.

What all sides agree on is that difficult choices must be made now that it's clear that demand has outpaced system capacities.

"The problem is we're a superpower with a third-world grid. We need a new grid," said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who was energy secretary under Bill Clinton. "It takes a crisis, unfortunately, in America sometimes, to take the steps that are necessary."

The North American Electric Reliability Council estimates it will take $56 billion to upgrade electrical grids adequately across the country, money electric companies don't want to pay.

Legislatively, Congress has long been resistant to changes in energy policy, in part because it means making hard choices that are sure to annoy constituents from environmentalists to suburban homeowners who don't want power lines and electrical facilities in their neighborhoods.

To get anything done, however, Bush will likely need to employ his political capital and may find himself looking for compromises with Democrats as he has done before.

The Republican-led House passed an energy bill earlier this year. Before it left for its August recess, the Senate approved a version similar to a Democratic-sponsored bill from the last Congress.

Democrats say the Senate version specifically addresses the issues encompassed in Thursday's blackout -- finding "best practices for critical energy infrastructure assurance" and protecting against, mitigating the effect of and improving the ability "to recover from disruptive incidents affecting critical energy infrastructure."

In contrast, the Republican energy bill abandoned by the Senate but similar to the House version does not contain either of these provisions. Democrats say the Republican bill also would have impeded the ability of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to respond to multi-state energy crises and problems until July 2005. It's unclear whether FERC will review or take action on Thursday's blackout.

"The West Coast energy crisis was a wake-up call on energy modernization, the blackout is a blaring siren," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "President Bush should call on Republicans to work with House Democrats to modernize our transition system."

But House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said the Republican bill does more to move electricity around to where it can best be used, and blamed partisan politics for the failure to get a bill on the president's desk.

"Our system of getting electricity from one city to another is interconnected -- piecemeal regulations won't work. This is a regional and national priority, and the current patchwork system is failing," DeLay said in a statement. "The [Republican] energy bill will make it easier to transport electricity from overserved to underserved communities."

Many have said energy reforms are dead for the year because House and Senate negotiators won't be able to make compromises on the vastly different measures.

But at least one Republican lawmaker has said that he is willing to make the tough choices if it means getting an updated energy grid in place. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he will work with negotiators on production, distribution and domestic energy alternatives.

"This outage clearly demonstrates how close the nation is to its energy production and distribution limit," Domenici said in a statement. "Ensuring the proper level of power to the country demands that we make trade offs, including production and greater use of such sources as nuclear energy and practical renewable sources."

Mustering the political will will have to be a priority, say observers. New York Gov. George Pataki said there's no getting around the need for improvements.

"There is something seriously wrong when the entire Northeast, when the Midwest, when Ontario can in a matter of minutes all lose power. This was not supposed to happen," Pataki said.

[Republican Red]

REPUBLICANS WORK TO ADDRESS ENERGY NEEDS BUT DEMOCRATS AREN'T INTERESTED(RNC Research Dept)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/964962/posts

GEPHARDT - 18 Missed Votes (100% of Energy Votes This Session)

130: Energy Plan - Previous Question
131: Energy Plan - Rule
132: Energy Plan - Oil Consumption
133: Energy Plan - Alt. Electricity Provisions
134: Energy Plan - ANWR Limit
135: Energy Plan - ANWR Drilling
136: Energy Plan - Federal Contracts
137: Energy Plan - Gas Reserves
138: Energy Plan - Uranium Mining
142: Energy Plan - Royalty Payments
143: Energy Plan - Coal Leases
144: Energy Plan - Recommit
145: Energy Plan - Passage
166: Nanotechnology Research - Clean Energy
392: FY 2004 Energy /Water Approp.s - Renewable Energy
393: FY 2004 Energy/Water Approp.s - Across-the-Board Cut
394: FY 2004 Energy and Water Appropriations - Recommit
395: FY 2004 Energy and Water Appropriations - Passage


KERRY - 12 Missed Votes (60% of Energy Votes This Session)

203: Energy Policy - Ethanol Requir. Exclusion
204: Energy Policy - Ethanol Requir. Exclusion
206: Energy Policy - Ethanol Requir. Exclusion
218: Energy Policy - Energy Commodity Trading
219: Energy Policy - Indian Energy Projects
309: Energy Policy - Fuel Economy Standards
310: Energy Policy - Fuel Economy Standards
311: Energy Policy - Price Manipulation
313: Energy Policy - Utility Mergers
314: Energy Policy - Standard Market Design
315: Energy Policy - Internal Transactions
317: Energy Policy - Passage


LIEBERMAN - 10 Missed Votes (50% of Energy Votes This Session)

203: Energy Policy - Ethanol Requir. Exclusion
204: Energy Policy - Ethanol Requir. Exclusion
206: Energy Policy - Ethanol Requir. Exclusion
207: Energy Policy - Ethanol Requir. Exclusion
208: Energy Policy - Liability Standards
214: Energy Policy - Nuclear Power Plants
221: Energy Policy - Off-Shore Drilling
309: Energy Policy - Fuel Economy Standards
310: Energy Policy - Fuel Economy Standards
317: Energy Policy - Passage


GRAHAM - 9 Missed Votes (45% of Energy Votes This Session)

10: FY 2003 Omnibus Approp.s - LIHEAP
203: Energy Policy - Ethanol Requir. Exclusion
204: Energy Policy - Ethanol Requir. Exclusion
206: Energy Policy - Ethanol Requir. Exclusion
207: Energy Policy - Ethanol Requir. Exclusion
208: Energy Policy - Liability Standards
209: Energy Policy - Ethanol Usage
309: Energy Policy - Fuel Economy Standards
310: Energy Policy - Fuel Economy Standards


EDWARDS - 5 Missed Votes (25% of Energy Votes This Session)

203: Energy Policy - Ethanol Requir. Exclusion
204: Energy Policy - Ethanol Requir. Exclusion
212: Energy Policy - Hydrogen Fuel Cells
221: Energy Policy - Off-Shore Drilling
310: Energy Policy - Fuel Economy Standards


NOW THE SAME DEMOCRATS WANT TO BLAME PRESIDENT BUSH AND REPUBLICANS

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) On The Blackouts: "If it weren't for this Administration's obsession with giveaways to their friends in the oil business, Congress likely would have passed an energy bill last year." (John Kerry For President, Press Release, 8/15/03)

Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-MO) On The Blackouts: "The unfortunate events on the East Coast, parts of the Midwest and in Canada yesterday are further evidence that the Bush administration is inexorably tied to Persian Gulf oil and old energy, and is incapable of devising a comprehensive, forward looking energy strategy." (Dick Gephardt For President, Press Release, 8/15/03)

[Eva]

Dick Cheney stated in his speech on the energy situation in June of 2001, that the country's energy grid was is dire need of upgrade and modernization. The only response that his report received from the Democrats were verbal attacks and investigations about the industry experts that were consulted to form the energy policy. The leader of the attack was leftist Henry Waxman. It seems that the Democrats thought that the California model of putting the enviromental issues before energy issues was the way to go. Gray Davis did such a fine job.

[OldFriend]

Nothing interesting about O'Reilly at all lately. He seems to despise the Bush administration to an illogical degree.

[Graewoulf]

The capital to modernize our antiquated electrical grid system needs to come from the sale of private utilities stocks and bonds to private investors.

After the capital improvements to the grid system are well underway, it will be time to drill ANWAR.

Might as well get ready, as Global Warming is here to stay!

[Brimack34]

There is beganning to be a pattern. The dems seem too blame Bush for everything. Does anyone else notice this.

[Veritas01]

Yes, because, god only knows, that the clintons had eight years to fix the problem; and oh, yes, didn't Dems bark when bush did meet to try and fix it?

[King Prout]

yknow, when I heard Her einous bashing Dubya les than seven hours after the blackout began, I had this vague remembrance of Dubya stressing the need to revamp and redouble the electrical distribution grid... two years ago(?)
Is my memory faulty, or did he not indeed say this?

[facedown]

It was a major part of his 2001 Energy Plan:

America's Energy Infrastructure, A Comprehensive Delivery System (Is a PDF document)

[King Prout]

THANKS!
Nice to know my melon isn't rotted all the way through, yet.
So... where'd Dubya's "in your face, o short-term-memory-people" rebuttal???
He needs to hammer back at 'em.

[facedown]

He needs to hammer back at 'em.

Probably better for Cheney, or maybe just McClellan, to do so.

[alrea]

It's very simple. The problem with the grid is the problem with job growth and offshore competition. Regulation and taxes are choking us.

New Yorkers that put HR Clinton in office need to go through a few more blackouts.

We must slow the growth of Government and regulations, and the way to do this is to get the progressive socialists out of office. These people would put Clinton in the White House today.

Twin towers, power outages...these are events directly related to liberal policies. Even some liberals are saying this.

[Bruce Kurtz]

said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "President Bush should call on Republicans to work with House Democrats to modernize our transition system."

She wants to upgrade our transistion system?


Bruce Kurtz

[Liberty Valance]

Typical Dem response...oh and W is resposible for those low-flow toilets too...Bull cookies.

Liberty

[harpo11]

Heck, I wonder, do these democrat mental midgets really think George Bush pulled the plug? I'm thinking democrats who always think they know best, but never offer viable solutions, have somehow stepped in it again and they refuse to acknowledge the stink is due to the fact that they are in bed making out with the environmental nuts that prevent America from joining the 21st Century when it comes to our energy needs.

Folks, they want to keep us under their heel of regressive policies guaranteed to stymie our nation's security and superpower status.

Democrats every eager to promote their own power, have simply left us powerless.

[HitmanLV]

This has no legs at all. It will validate the 25-33% of the people who hate Bush & Republicans anyway, and will alienate the rest.

[GenXFreedomFighter]

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) On The Blackouts: "If it weren't for this Administration's obsession with giveaways to their friends in the oil business, Congress likely would have passed an energy bill last year." (John Kerry For President, Press Release, 8/15/03)

Sheesh. That's almost as bad as the statement that Ketchup Man's spokesman made about Kerry choosing the wrong cheese on his steak sandwich (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51517-2003Aug12.html) because he was too busy thinking about Bush's 'failed economic policies.' Who the hell do they think they're fooling with these ham-fisted attacks, besides the folks that already hate Bush anyway?