US President George W. Bush hits the road again on Friday on a fresh mission to sell his new energy plan and begin implementing recommendations from the policy blueprint that touched off a new political firestorm.
Focusing on different parts of his energy policy, Bush will tour the Safe Harbor Hydroelectric Plant in Conestoga, Pennsylvania, and was expected to announce the signing of two executive orders putting some of the energy proposals into action, White House officials said.
One order would require all federal agencies to develop alternatives should any major regulatory actions they plan have a significant impact on energy, officials said.
The second executive order would direct agencies to expedite permits and other federal actions necessary for energy-related project approvals in an environmentally sound manner, the officials said.
Bush began a tough selling job on Wednesday, traveling to Minnesota and Iowa to pitch an energy plan with heavy emphasis on increasing supply rather than restraining growing demand. But he also urged Americans to think more about conservation.
"We need to figure out how to drive new kinds of cars that don't over-consume hydrocarbons. We need to figure out how to have smart technologies in our homes," Bush said in a speech in Iowa. "We need to be mindful of turning off lights."
However, Bush, a former Texas oilman, warned: "No matter how well we conserve, we're still going to need more energy."
Bush offered a plan he said would "expand and diversify" US energy supplies. "That means oil. That means gas. That means safe nuclear energy. That means clean coal technologies," he said.
NEW POWER PLANTS
The 163-page plan, with more than 100 recommendations, includes such controversial measures as opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to drilling and building new nuclear power plants.
Democrats and environmentalists were quick to draw up battlelines denouncing the Bush plan as a threat to the environment, a gift to the president's energy industry allies, and too little to provide relief from the immediate energy crunch.
Rep. Edward Markey, a senior Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee called the administration's proposals "a Trojan Horse plan that seeks to repeal our nation's environmental protection and open up our most pristine wilderness areas to oil and gas exploration and mining."
Many Republican lawmakers joined in support of the president, praising the plan developed under the leadership of Vice President Dick Cheney as "balanced and comprehensive."
Pennsylvania's Republican Governor Tim Ridge, who was to appear with Bush on Friday, welcomed the Bush plan as "a long-term policy that answers American's needs."
"Most important, it rejects the false choice of 'conversation vs. production' that has too often characterized the energy debate," Ridge said in a statement -- WASHINGTON (Reuters)
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