The energy policy that US President George W. Bush announces on Thursday is likely to encourage more oil and gas production, including drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
It will also cut environmental regulations to encourage construction of new oil refineries and power plants. These measures aim to tackle what the White House says is the most serious energy shortage since the oil embargoes of the 1970s. Rising energy costs would damage an already fragile US economy.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says the report will criticise the 鈥渞egulatory hurdles鈥� that have slowed building of new power plants, including nuclear plants, as well as refineries. 鈥淭he nation hasn鈥檛 build any new refineries in the last 25 years,鈥� he says.
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Even before the energy policy had been released, it drew fire from Democratic opponents who claimed it was a gift to Bush鈥檚 friends in the oil industry.
鈥淭he Bush administration is merely following the same tired old Republican playbook 鈥� cast blame, insist on extreme anti-environmental proposals, and provide American families with no real help,鈥� said Dick Gephardt, Democrat, Missouri.
Secret meetings
In a letter to the administration, John Dingell, the senior Democrat on the House energy committee, complained that the task force that drew up the policy, headed by vice president Dick Cheney, met in secret and refused to even reveal who it had talked to. Representatives of environmental groups had complained they were stonewalled by the task force.
But Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham says people shouldn鈥檛 prejudge the energy plan. 鈥淲hat is in the best interest of the United States is to raise our domestic supplies and to do a better job on conservation. Our plan will be balanced between conservation on the one hand and supply on the other,鈥� he told CNN.
An alternative Democratic plan called for more investment in alternative fuels, and individual tax credits for things like buying fuel efficient cars. It also calls for the President to draw on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gasoline prices.
Neither the Bush policy nor the alternative will go into effect unless it passes both houses of Congress, a process that could take weeks or months.
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