Alexander to Reveal Energy Plan Today
Posted on: Friday, 9 May 2008, 09:00 CDT
By Herman Wang, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.
May 9--WASHINGTON -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., will unveil his "Manhattan Project" plan for energy security at Oak Ridge National Laboratory today, outlining his ideas to increase the country's energy supply while promoting conservation.
"What I'm going to be doing is identifying a handful of areas which should be high priority over the next five years," Sen. Alexander said.
One example, he said, is plug-in hybrid vehicles, which he said would hopefully be commercially available in a few years.
"I think most Tennesseans would like the idea of plugging their car in at night and filling it up for $2 or $3 worth of electricity instead of paying $50 to $60 to fill it up with gasoline," Sen. Alexander said.
But critics already are lining up to knock Sen. Alexander, who sits on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, for his environmental record.
Mike Padgett, a Democratic contender for Sen. Alexander's seat, said the energy proposal is "nothing more than an election-year reinvention" and criticized the senator's support for tax breaks for oil companies, opposition to wind power and calls to drill for oil in Alaska.
"In five years as a United States senator, he has done nothing that would prevent the pain we're feeling now at the pump," said Mr. Padgett, a former Knox County Clerk, who is running against former state Democratic Party Chairman Bob Tuke for the party nomination.
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy also cited Sen. Alexander's listing by the politically progressive Mother Jones magazine as one of Congress's Top 10 "Fossil Fools."
Against the backdrop of Sen. Alexander's speech, the Senate is set next week to duel over a Republican proposal to increase oil and gas supply by drilling offshore and in Alaska, while also promoting the development of controversial coal-to-liquid fuels and a Democratic proposal to tax oil companies' windfall profits and crack down on oil-futures speculation.
Sen. Alexander has named his energy plan after the Manhattan Project, the U.S. effort in the 1940s to develop the atomic bomb, saying a similar collaborative push would be needed to keep the country energy secure.
He will unveil his plan with Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee.
Rep. Gordon said the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency, created through a math and science competitiveness bill he and Sen. Alexander shepherded through Congress last year, could be the vehicle to develop and implement some of the ideas the senator will outline in his speech.
"Just one success from (the Advanced Research Projects Agency) could put the U.S. on track to becoming more energy independent," Rep. Gordon said.
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Source: Chattanooga Times/Free Press
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