Bush calls for more mining

By Jill Zuckman and Bob Kemper
Washington Bureau, Chicago Tribune
Published January 23, 2002

WASHINGTON -- As the Senate prepares for an imminent tussle over energy legislation, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry engaged in a long-distance debate Tuesday over the value of conservation versus increased domestic oil, coal and gas production.

In Belle, W.Va., Bush argued that passage of his energy plan is essential to the nation's security and economic well-being, touting coal as a critical means to prevent an over-dependence on foreign fuel. "In order to become less dependent on foreign sources of energy, we've got to find and produce more energy at home, including coal," Bush told cheering supporters in an airport hangar.

After visiting a distributorship for mining equipment, he said, "We need to use coal. We got a lot of it."

By producing more of its own coal, oil and gas, the United States can reduce its reliance on foreign oil suppliers and enhance its national security, the president said. But more immediately, increased drilling and mining can create thousands of jobs that are desperately needed during the current recession, he added. "This is just as much a jobs program as it is a national security program," Bush said. "And it's about time Congress skips all the politics and focuses on what's right for the American people."

With gas prices low and the electricity shortage a memory, Republicans have retooled their argument to reflect national security concerns about reliance on foreign energy.

The last time Congress rewrote the energy laws was in 1992, after Iraq had invaded Kuwait and drove up oil prices. Before that, the fall of the Shah of Iran led to an oil shortage in 1979, helping President Jimmy Carter persuade Congress to enact conservation measures. And in 1975, Congress passed energy legislation in response to the Arab oil embargo.

The House passed Bush's energy plan last year. It calls for clean-burning coal technology, as well as drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But the measure has been hung up in the Senate, where the narrow divide endangers almost every piece of legislation that does not enjoy broad bipartisan support.

Bush said in West Virginia that he hoped the energy bill would not become bogged down in election-year politics and noted that a number of labor unions, a traditionally Democratic constituency, were backing his energy program because of the jobs it would create. "There are some things that are more important than political party," he said. "Energy is more important than political party. Jobs are more important than political party."

Bush defended his call for drilling in the Alaskan refuge.

"We can [drill in Alaska] in an environmentally friendly way," Bush said. "We can have a footprint in this vast tundra that will not affect the environment and, at the same time, make us less dependent on foreign sources of energy." Conservation is not enough

When the administration unveiled its energy plan last year, Vice President Dick Cheney, its chief architect, dismissed conservation as a worthwhile personal virtue but an unsound basis for an energy program. The White House has since backed off of those comments, insisting, as Bush did again Tuesday, that conservation will be an important part of any energy plan.

"We've got to promote technologies that will enable people to have the same lifestyle without burning as much energy," the president said. "We've got to figure out ways for our cars to burn less fuel.

"But," he said, "conservation is only half of the equation. In order to become less dependent on foreign sources of energy, we've got to find and produce more energy at home, including coal."

(This was edited)

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