-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Abraham: Energy Crisis Threatens By H. Josef Hebert Associated Press Writer Monday, March 19, 2001; 1:25 p.m. EST WASHINGTON –– Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Monday the country is facing the most serious energy shortages since the 1970s. Without a solution, he said, the energy crisis will threaten prosperity and national security and change the way Americans live. Abraham, in a speech hours before a special energy task force was to l make recommendations to President Bush, said California's power problems are neither isolated nor temporary and could spread to other parts of the country, including the Northeast. "The power crisis isn't just pinching our wallets, it's changing the way we live our lives," Abraham said in a speech described by aides as his most comprehensive assessment of the country's energy concerns since becoming energy secretary. Abraham said the demand for energy "is rising across the board" but particularly for natural gas and electricity. As he spoke, the Energy Department also was raising concern of possible gasoline price spikes this summer. The department said both crude-oil inventories and gasoline stocks are 6 percent to 7 percent lower that what they traditionally have been this time of year. The estimates came even before calculation of the potential impact of a decision last week by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to lower production by 1 million barrels a day. At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer said Abraham had communicated with OPEC members before the production cut was made. Fleischer said Bush is focused on long-term strategies. "While we can encourage and should encourage conservation, the most realistic approach our nation can take, in the president's opinion, is to increase supplies of energy." As for tapping the nation's strategic petroleum reserve, Fleischer said, "The president has never ruled that out, but the president believes that is an emergency action that should be taken not as a consequence of supply-and-demand imbalances but in terms of national security emergencies." John Cook, chief petroleum analyst for the department's Energy Information Administration, called the current inventory levels a disturbing sign for this summer's heavy driving season. While stocks likely will increase somewhat, "We are beginning the driving season with very little stock cushion," Cook said in remarks prepared for an oil refiners' conference in New Orleans. Abraham, addressing an energy conference sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the administration is determined to pursue "a rational balance between our energy needs and our environmental concerns." He gave no details about the proposals expected to be presented to Bush by the energy task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. He said the administration's policy "will stress the need to diversify America's energy supply." Abraham said it is a myth that oil companies and power companies are "engaged in a massive conspiracy to gouge consumers." "There is no magic source of supply, no hidden pool of energy that can be turned on and off like a faucet," he declared. Energy analysts are concerned that this summer will bring not only another round of power blackouts in California and possibly other states, as well as increases in the cost of not only electricity, but also gasoline during the peak summer driving season. Gasoline prices nationwide for all brands average $1.41 a gallon, slightly lower than in recent weeks, the Energy Department said. While the DOE earlier this month predicted prices at the pump this summer would increase modestly to about $1.49 on average, analysts said they would not rule out severe price spikes beyond that should supply problems develop. Last year gasoline soared past $2 a gallon in some parts of the country, especially in the Midwest. In a presentation to the refiners conference, Cook said gasoline stocks in the Gulf Coast area are nearly 13 percent below the normal five-year average, and 9 percent lower than at this time last year. "For crude oil the situation is not much better," said Cook. Nationwide, he said, crude stocks are 7 percent below the low end of the normal range for this time of year. While the impact of OPEC's latest production cuts is not expected to show up in the U.S. market for six to eight weeks, it is likely to aggravate stock supplies even more, analysts said. White House sounds energy alarm Monday, 19 March 2001 19:18 (ET) White House sounds energy alarm WASHINGTON, March 19 (UPI) -- The White House said the United States was veering toward an energy crisis and pointed to cuts in oil production by OPEC, saying it was "disappointed" by the oil cartel's latest move. "Demand for energy in the United States is increasing much more so than production is, and as result, we're finding in certain parts of the country that we're short on energy," President Bush said during a meeting with top administration officials tasked with coming up a national energy policy. "One thing is for certain: there are no short-term fixes." Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham underscored Bush's remarks during a speech earlier in the day at the United States Chamber of Commerce, where he said energy shortages threatened to stall efforts to spur the economy. Abraham said electricity shortages seen in California were harbingers of more widespread power troubles in the United States. Citing projections for increased energy demands, Abraham said New York, the Midwest, Southwest and areas of the central United States could soon face the electricity shortages much like in the Golden State. "Americans across the nation are feeling the energy squeeze," Abraham said. "Rising demand, tightening supplies and aging power infrastructure, a decade of neglect from Washington; these are the trends that define America's emerging energy challenges." White House spokesman Ari Fleischer used Bush and Abraham's warnings to reiterate the administration's call for increasing domestic oil drilling, including development on the federal lands like the wildlife refuge in Alaska known as ANWR. But increased domestic production would take up to a decade to provide relief. Fleischer said nonetheless that a long-term energy policy was the best solution for the potential shortages Bush and Abraham cited. "The President is focused on finding a long-term solution to our nation's energy problems," Fleischer said. "And he believes that's the most beneficial step we can take." Fleischer said "it was a disappointment" that leadership at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to trim production when it met in Vienna over the weekend, despite appeals by the administration against a production decrease. OPEC officials said economic slowdowns in the United States and Japan meant less oil consumption and therefore a hurtful price drop in oil for exporters unless world supplies were tightened. The OPEC move was a clear setback to the administration, which had hoped to wield more influence among Arab nations with ranking officials like Vice President Dick Cheney, who served as secretary of defense during the Gulf War in the last Bush administration. Asked about OPEC by reporters, Bush said he was encouraged because Saudi Arabia, a major player in the organization, vowed to keep oil prices near the $25 per barrel mark, widely seen as the best price for both producers and consumers. "The piece of good news in their decision was that the Saudi minister made it clear that he and his friends would not allow the price of oil, crude oil to exceed $28 a barrel," Bush said. "That's very comforting to the American consumer, and I appreciate that gesture. I thought that was a very strong statement of understanding, that high prices of crude oil will affect our economy." New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman, the ranking Democrat on the Senate energy committee, said he agreed that the country faces "significant energy challenges." But he said the Bush administration's plan was incomplete. "Any comprehensive response to these challenges must include a balance between increasing supply while curbing demand, increasing efficiency and considering the environmental impacts of our energy policies," Bingaman said. "The Bush Administration approach seems to ignore this bigger picture." -- *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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