Posted on 08/18/2003 7:30:22 AM PDT by JesseHousman
SANTA FE— Gov. Bill Richardson on Sunday said the Bush administration and Congress must move quickly to pass an energy plan to upgrade the nation's electrical grid.
"The president has to make it a major priority to get the Congress off the dime to pass mandatory reliability standards," Richardson said on "Face the Nation" on CBS. "The Bush administration and the Congress should strip out those provisions (in the energy bill) that are controversial, nuclear and coal subsidies, the drilling in Alaska."
In calling for passage of a stripped down energy bill, Richardson, who served as Energy secretary under former President Clinton, disagreed with Spencer Abraham, the current Energy secretary, who also appeared on "Face the Nation."
Abraham said it would be a mistake to take out controversial provisions, such as allowing oil drilling in the Arctic.
Richardson said the U.S. needs to enact mandatory reliability standards because utility companies can overload transmission lines without fear of penalties.
"Secondly, we've got to build some new transmission lines," said Richardson, who was interviewed on CBS from the state Capitol.
Richardson agreed with Abraham that consumers will bear much of the costs of updating the country's power grid, which some have put at $50 billion.
"The ratepayers will pay the bill because they're the ones who benefit," Abraham said. Richardson said: "The utilities should pay for it, but eventually it's going to be passed down to the consumer."
Richardson defended his tenure as Energy secretary when host Bob Schieffer asked him why the Clinton administration had not acted five years ago when experts warned of a possible energy crisis, such as last week's blackout, which affected seven states and left 50 million people without power.
"Why were you unable to get anything done back then? That was on your watch," Schieffer said to Richardson.
Richardson said he had hosted electricity summits around the country while Energy secretary "warning that this could happen." "We, the Clinton administration, pushed this, mandatory standards, in the Congress," Richardson said. "The Republican Congress did not respond. They did not want to move in this direction."
Richardson said the blackout showed it would be "very easy" for a terrorist to attack the nation's electricity grid.
Richardson said the Bush administration needs "to perform a threat assessment and see how we can get some kind of federal support in the security of our nuclear power plants, of our electricity grid."
Richardson said the grid "has been shown to be enormously vulnerable, yet it is enormously valuable because we are all dependent on it."
After taping "Face the Nation," Richardson flew to Indianapolis to attend the summer meeting of the National Governors Association. Richardson spokesman Billy Sparks said it was likely the nation's governors would discuss the energy situation.
"There's a great deal of concern among the governors about getting that energy bill passed by Congress," Sparks said in a telephone interview.
Richardson has appeared on numerous national television news shows since the blackout and wrote an opinion piece on it that appeared in The New York Times on Saturday. He is scheduled to be interviewed today on "The Early Show" on CBS and is expected to return to New Mexico tonight.
Wasn't he also busy driving Monica Lewinsky around, trying to find her a job? Imagine that. The Energy Secretary doing bimbo errands for Bill.
O'Reilly stated that Richardson was a friend and a good guy and he believed him that he did all he could in the two years as billy-Goat and Hitlery's energy czar.
Actually commissar is a better term.
As far as drilling in the pristine wilderness areas is concerned, the animals might get contaminated. Meanwhile, since the late 50's the Alaskan Pipeline continues to transmit oil to Kalifornica where it is loaded onto ships bound for Asia. Not a barrel of that is refined and used in America.
The only problem is, the Clinton cabal is probably more responsible for the blackout mess than anyone. According to a career Energy Department staffer, early in his tenure Richardson met with a number of no-growth environmental groups committed to blocking expansion of power resources around the country, including the ceding of land for regional installation of expanded power lines and the like. "He committed the department to not seeking that kind of expansion," says the department staffer. "They even blocked the study of the power grid that [current secretary of energy Spencer] Abraham ordered when he came into office. That study could have been completed more than three years ago."
Since the main states affected have mostly Democrat Senators (NY, NJ, CT, VT etc.) I would think that placing the Sunday talk show blame on Democrat obstruction might do some good.
controversial = What the dims don't want.
Oil is fungible.
It is cheaper to sell Alaskan oil to Asia to buy oil from sources that can ship easier to East coast and Gulf of Mexico refineries, basically a swap.
Now he is towel-boy for the Texas DemocRATs who holed up in an Albuquerque hotel.
A few years ago I spoke with someone who knew Richardson and was told that this crud bathed about once a month and rarely washed his greasy head of hair.
Never listen to what a Democrat politician says. Watch what they do. Politicians lie, but actions speak much louder than words.
Take the elite socialists for example. They boarder (if not all out) on skin head Communists.
They say they're for helping Black Americans, but they hate them. They're constantly belittling them. They say they could never compete with white folks in school - they need help. They say blacks can't get into college on their own - they're too dumb. They say blacks can't get a job on their own, buy homes on their own, support their own kids. They'll never be able to speak clear engilish, so we need to advance their street talk in schools. They're too dumb to read a ballot, so they need a helping hand. If the Democrats "like" blacks, imagine what their "hate" must be like!!!!
Then there's the Jewish. They say they're against anti-semitism, and constantly harass anyone for anything, but they dream of Israels dimise. They praise and protect Palistinian terrorism!!!
They say they're for womans rights, yet they've removed them from the comfort of their home and away from their children - who are now trained into socialism by the schools behind their backs, and half of everything a woman earns is being used to buy more votes through social programs for the Democrats home-sitting base!!
They say they're for "gay rights", so they try to multiply them through the children they say they care soooooo much about, as the diseases among them run rabid, with more infections and diseases waiting to raise their ugly heads. Death and dispare followes the lifestyle, rather than normalacy and a healthy life. That's the future of those they let live!!
Not only do Democrat words lie, but their actions are deadly and create massive desolation. You'd never notice if you listen to them speak, but you'd be terrified of the future, their "progressiveness", if you'd watch what they do.
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