Bush's Northeast energy plans concerns lawmakers

By Ken Maguire, Associated Press, 2/28/2001 21:33

WASHINGTON (AP) Northeast lawmakers criticized President Bush's budget blueprint Wednesday for not earmarking funds to help families pay energy bills and for proposing privatization of the regional home heating oil reserve.

Bush's plan, which is still be refined and is not finalized, does not propose extra funds for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Northeast legislators say the program is vital for their region and chronically underfunded.

Because the outline is vague, however, they offered only low-key criticism. It may be that Bush intends to increase the LIHEAP budget but simply did not include it in the blueprint, they said.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said Bush's energy commitments ''create as many questions as answers.''

''I am certainly interested to learn more information about Bush's proposals such as privatizing the Northeast heating oil reserve, as well those that appear to have been unaddressed, such as low income heating assistance,'' he said.

Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., a chief proponent of the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, said privatization would undermine the reserve's goal.

''What is important about the ... reserve, which we fought so hard to get, is that its goal is to lower the cost of energy in the Northeast for consumers not to make profits for the private corporations,'' Sanders said.

The 2 million barrel reserve, created last year, is operated by the Energy Department. The Energy secretary has authority to release oil into the market to offset sharp price spikes or severe shortages.

Bush's blueprint calls for $8 million to continue the reserve. It says the president ''supports a privately managed'' reserve. A Sanders aide called the idea ''disturbing'' because non-governmental control might not be in the best interest of the consumer.

''To try to privatize it before it's even been used is absolutely outrageous,'' spokesman David Sirota said. ''Usually you privatize something when it hasn't worked well under public control.''

White House officials were unavailable to comment Wednesday.

The blueprint did, however, propose a $1.4 billion increase over 10 years in the Weatherization Assistance Program. It's targeted to low-income families.

Several lawmakers expressed concern privately that LIHEAP would be overlooked in the president's most important budget statement to date.

An aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said ''it's too early to tell. There's simply not enough detail to make a judgment.''

Sirota said Bush supported increased LIHEAP funding on the campaign trail.

''We very much expect that he would live up to what he said in his campaign about substantially increasing LIHEAP funds,'' he said.

The fiscal 2001 LIHEAP budget is $1.4 billion in formula spending. An additional $300 million in emergency funds was distributed to states by President Clinton before he left office.

Over 100 lawmakers, including most from Northeast states, sent a letter to Bush recently calling for a doubling of the LIHEAP budget.

Overall, Bush needs to be more specific with his priorities, according to Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I.

''There's certainly not that many details,'' he said of the president's plans.

Bush's attempts to charm lawmakers into supporting his goals, he added, won't get him far.

''This is not a therapy session, it's Congress. We've got to pass a budget and fulfill the expectations of the American public,'' Reed said. ''We're just waiting for the real story, the real facts, the real numbers. Frankly, a new administration always has this problem.''

-- Anonymous, March 01, 2001