RICHARDSON URGES BUSH TO PASS ENERGY PLAN

Albuquerque Journal ^ | August 18, 2003 | Loie Fecteau

[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.

[Grampa Dave]

One of the best kept secrets in our power problems in Kalifornicator* was Davis's attempt for the state to take over the Electrical Grids.

Then, they would not have had to raise taxes for their tax and spend wet dreams for their voting perverts. They could have just raised the cost of electricity transmission to business owned by conservatives and to the "rich" homeowners.

*(Which was set up by the Rats and their Watermelon Jihadist Enviralist buddies over 2+ decades.)

[BOBTHENAILER]

"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."

Superb catch, CD.

RICHARDSON, CLINTON & DASCHLE will TRIPLE average energy costs.

[Maria S]

From the article: "Abraham said it would be a mistake to take out controversial provisions, such as allowing oil drilling in the Arctic."

The idea that liberals and environmentalists are putting so much pressure to stop drilling in ANWAR is absolutely lunacy. This crap about having to continue depending on the arabs for our oil is ridiculous... And the idea that drilling an area ("Pristine, absolutely pristine" as the libs say) the size of a piece of typing paper on a football field is beyond stupid. I would take their complaints into consideration if this were a region that thousands visit every year, but it's not.

[Rummyfan]

How is it that Bill Richardson's opinion carries any weight with regards to our national energy needs?

[Sangria]

a5050, thanks for reminding me. Even Hillary, as I recall, said that he was counseling a young employee (or something to that effect.)

[CyberAnt]

PLUS .. WHY DOESN'T THIS DEMOCRAT TELL HIS OWN PARTY MEMBERS TO GET OFF THEIR LAZY REARENDS AND PASS THE ENERGY PLAN BUSH GAVE TO THEM OVER 2 YEARS AGO!!!

The idiotic statement that "Bush needs to pass the energy bill" - shows you how partisan they are - BUSH CAN'T PASS THE ENERGY PLAN - HE CAN ONLY SIGN IT AFTER THE OBSTRUCTIONIST DEMS PASS IT.

[mabelkitty]

And everyone in the rest of the country says, Richardson who?

[mabelkitty]

Which is why Billyboy and Hilly spent Spring Break with their Indy friend and Chretian.

They have something up their sleeves every time a terrorism success hits the new cycle.

Coincidence? Whatever.

[mabelkitty]

I like controversy.

Phoenix has no gasoline.

Let's see how they feel about drilling right now.

[StriperSniper]

Phoenix has no gasoline.

I just heard Rush talking about that, it is a pipeline break, but it's all related.