WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Senators and House members from both sides of the aisle joined environmental and renewable energy groups Thursday in calling on the administration to shift its budget priorities away from energy production and towards conservation.
Members of the House and Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucuses headlined a briefing on the energy aspects of the president's 2003 budget request at the Rayburn House Office Building. Other speakers included leaders from the Worldwatch Institute, Solar Energy Industries Association, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., co-chair of the Senate caucus, said the budget needs to do more in terms of increasing demand for solar, wind and other alternative energy sources.
"One of the areas we really need to work on ... is improving our technology in storage capacity," Allard said. "For example, if you have solar (power) and clouds come through for a few days, you have to have some other technology (to store that electricity beforehand). We'll be looking at these ideas in the Senate, and we need to push them in terms of the president's budget."
Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said the budget request's numbers show the White House has heard some of the caucuses' "clean energy" message, but more needs to be done. He expects the House to look at more evenly funding all areas of energy policy.
Ladeene Freimuth, a staff member with Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., told the gathering the senator will work to correct shortfalls in federal funding for solar and biomass programs. Dorgan also wants the budget to reflect the Department of Energy's very long-term goals, such as benchmarks for energy production and usage several decades from now.
Steve Nadel, the ACEEE's executive director, said a detailed review of the administration's energy budget items shows that spending on energy efficiency efforts would decrease next year. Particular losers include the Energy Efficiency Science Initiative and grants to state programs, as well as research and development work on some building components and car and truck design. Some areas seeing higher funding levels include work on hydrogen fuel cells, weatherization and research into more efficient lighting.
The EESI emphasized the need to decentralize the nation's electricity grid to help protect against possible terrorist attacks. The White House should increase efforts to build additional, more robust transmission lines, as well as spur use of distributed generators, the group said.
At a separate event, three GOP senators from the Northeast leveled sharp criticism at Bush proposals to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Estimates of ANWR's available oil go as high as 16 billion barrels, according to the proposal's supporters. The U.S. Geological Survey has said between 4 billion and 8 billion barrels is a more likely estimate.
Maine's two Republican senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, along with Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., endorsed a letter opposing ANWR drilling issued by Americans for Alaska, which is headed by oil baron descendant Larry Rockefeller and includes dozens of prominent entertainment and political figures.
"The fastest, cheapest and cleanest step we could take toward reducing out nation's dependence on foreign oil would be to improve the fuel efficiency of ... our biggest gas guzzlers, SUVs and minivans," Snowe said in a statement.
"Drilling in ANWR today would be akin to wasting resources that should rightfully be there for future generations," Collins said in a statement. "I will not stand aside and allow the depletion of the single largest remaining oil reserve in the United States."
"I'm here to say it's time to move beyond oil," Rockefeller said. "We don't have to surrender the refuge for a few months' worth of oil 10 years from now."
