Senior policy advisor discusses Bush energy plan

TIMES-REPUBLICAN, Friday, September 7, 2001
by Bryan Schultz

Reed addresses power supply forum in Nevada

Nevada - Shortly after gaining the White House, President George W. Bush used the biomass facility in Nevada as a backdrop for unveiling his plans to form a national evergy policy.

The energy issue has come full circle, as Dr. Craig Reed, senior policy advisor in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy, attended a power supply forum Thursday in Nevada to discuss Bush's proposed plan.

"When the president started his term, he faced more serious issues than whether the "W's were missing on White House keyboards," Reed said. "California contributes 12 percent of the gross national product and was facing rolling blackouts and power supply problems."

According to Reed, officials in the Bush administration hope the nation learned a lesson from California: Drastic conservation is simply not enough.

"California lost $2.3 billion in lost wages." he said. "The economy grew by 25 percent, but no new power plants have been built in the past 10 years."

Reed said, however, the problem facing California and the rest of the nation is not simply building more power plants, but finding ways to get the energy to where it neeed to go.

"Southern California had energy, they just couldn't get it north," he noted. "The nation's energy transmission system is completely inadequate and there is no standard from region to region."

Reed said a highlight to the Bush plan is to create an "electricity super-highway," an updated network of power lines, grids and transformers from coast to coast. Not only would the network help power-starved regions in evergencies, Reed said, it would promote investment and business.

Even if the legislature passed the necessary bills to create such a plan — bills needed to streamline the process of building the infrastructure — Reed said America is eventually going to be even more power-hungry.

Reed said 20 years from now, the U.S. will use approximately 175 quadrillion BTUs (or quads), up from the 98 quads currently used. That massive amount of energy means further dependence upon foreign countries unless changes are made, he noted.

"Even with a very aggressive conservation program, we could only reduce that usage by 48 quads and at the current rate, we will only increase domestic energy by one quad," he said.

According to Reed, if the country's power needs fell short by one quad, the consequences would be devastating. One quad of evergy is the equivalent of heating 15 million homes, providing elecricity for 18 million homes, or driving171 billion miles.

Another Bush proposal is to further develop other sources of energy, citing the fact that the U.S. relies far too heavily on natural gas.

"Other countries are also starting to depend on natural gas, causing price spikes and ultimately, shortages," Reed said.

The Bush administration also wants to move funding for solar and wind research to the private sector, claiming the science is "mature."

"We will focus more heavily on biomass energy, fusion and hydrogen power to help develop real breakthroughs," Reed claimed.

Nuclear power, long a highly-debated subject, could also help solve the country's problems, according to the Bush plan, although Reed said progress was unlikely until a solution for a permanent waste disposal site could be found.

"France gets 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear plants," Reed said. "since the last reactors were built in the U.S., technology has improved and the plants are even safer. New reactor designs would be even safer than that."

What has been done so far, Reed said, has been of an administrative nature.

"We are makingprogress on the areas that don't require legislation — this was not a one-time issue."

Reed said the most importanat result of the proposed plans has been dialogue.

"I hope the nation has had a wake-up call — we have ignored these issues for years.

The complete national energy policy proposed by Bush can be found at www.energy.gov

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