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Energy Task Force Works in Secret Like Clinton Health Effort, Cheney Group Aims to Limit Leaks, Flak _____Special Report_____ By Dana Milbank and Eric Pianin Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, April 16, 2001; Page A01
The Bush administration's energy task force is something of a secret society.
At the start of each meeting with outside groups, task-force members
request that the session be off the record. They say they will share no
documents, to prevent information from leaking. The members are
expected not to talk to the media, and the few who do are not able to talk
about policy. "There really isn't anything to talk about," said an official
from the Transportation Department. "I'm sorry, but we're not going to discuss
process," said an Environmental Protection Agency spokesman who intercepted
a call to a task force staffer -- and then asked that his name not be used
with his no comment. Why such secrecy? The broad outline of the policy
recommendations, after all, is not in doubt. The final proposal, anticipated
within the next three or four weeks, will be heavily focused on increased
production of oil, gas and coal and investment in new refineries, pipelines
and power grids, according to those familiar with the discussions. The silence,
rather, is an effort to keep a low-key atmosphere around the task force's
deliberations. By limiting exposure, the administration is calculating that
it can limit criticism. To close followers of government, the shroud of secrecy
may seem familiar: It is precisely the approach taken by Hillary Rodham Clinton's
health care task force at the same point in the Clinton administration. Members
of the Bush energy task force, headed by Vice President Cheney, say they
are determined to avoid the disastrous fate that befell that previous task
force. They say that despite some obvious similarities in approach, their
goal -- solving the nation's energy supply-demand imbalance -- is more
circumscribed and achievable than overhauling America's health care system.
"We're not out to reengineer the nation's electric system," said Lawrence
B. Lindsey, the president's chief economic adviser and a member of the task
force. Still, addressing the nation's energy problems is one of the top
priorities for the new administration, and some of the issues the task force
plans to tackle could spark the same kind of outcry created by the Clinton
health task force. Administration officials familiar with the deliberations
say the task force is looking at everything from increased drilling in the
Alaskan wildlife refuge and the Rocky Mountains to more emphasis on nuclear
power and energy conservation. For Bush's energy team, as for the Clinton
health care task force, the problem is less in coming up with a set of
recommendations than in selling its ideas to the public. While Clinton's
advisers labored in secrecy, out-of-context news reports made wrong impressions,
and the feeding frenzy by opponents once the plan was released contributed
to its downfall. A similar danger faces the Bush task force as reports come
out about controversial elements in its plan, including more drilling and
more nuclear power plants. "There will be quite a political reaction to that,
and not just from the anti nuclear-proliferation types," said Paul Leventhal,
president of the Nuclear Control Institute. "It's from anyone who doesn't
want a plant in their back yard." Already, there are signs of the divisions.
Environmental groups complain that Cheney won't meet with their leaders while
the vice president sits down with a parade of industry officials. The nation's
powerful environmental lobby is ready to pounce on any report that will shift
policy from conservation toward increased energy production -- a central
argument of the Bush report. Some outsiders say the administration is courting
trouble with its closed approach. Ira Magaziner, who ran the Clinton health
care task force, said it was a "huge mistake" to restrict the news about
the health care task force. It didn't work, and it created hostility, he
said. "My experience taught me from a political and public policy point of
view, it's better keeping things open." Magaziner would know. In 1993, The
Washington Post wrote about the Clinton task force's information "blackout,"
designed "to stop reporters and lobbyists from bothering the staff." The
Clinton administration was even sued by critics for keeping its meetings
closed to the public. As for its proposals, "the public can't read them,
and the staff can't even photocopy them for fear the copies might be leaked,"
The Post wrote. Bush officials are well aware that the two task forces have
similarities, in timing and importance. Both focused on complex, divisive
issues that pitted consumers against industry. And both administrations sought
to keep their subject confidential to keep the public's attention on other
matters (Clinton's economic plan and Bush's tax cut) and to prevent opposition
from organizing. The Bush energy advisers say the silent approach is necessary.
"We didn't want to make it into a circus," a task force official said. "I
don't think this process would be able to get done what needs to get done
in a relatively short time frame unless we opened the doors to input, hunkered
down, did our due diligence and did our deliberations." Instead, Bush advisers
believe the tight structure of their energy task force will prevent some
of the public relations problems that plagued the Clinton group. Clinton's
was an unwieldy operation of about 15 committees and 34 working groups, relying
on about 500 staff members, several of whom weren't even government workers;
the Bush task force has a dozen members and a similar number of staffers.
Clinton's report exceeded 1,300 pages; Bush advisers are aiming for a
less-detailed report of about 100 pages. Keeping with the general tone of
the Bush administration, the energy group is small and highly disciplined.
The task force has met four or five times since January and now plans to
consult on a weekly basis in the vice president's ceremonial office in the
Eisenhower Executive Office Building. It includes the vice president; the
secretaries of energy, interior, transportation, agriculture, commerce and
treasury; the heads of EPA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency; Bush's
deputy staff chief Joshua Bolten; intergovernmental affairs adviser Ruben
Barrales; budget director Mitchell E. Daniels Jr.; and Lindsey. Running the
effort is Andrew Lundquist, 40, an Alaska native who has worked for both
of the state's senators, most recently as staff director of the Senate Energy
Committee. His deputy is fellow Alaskan Karen Knutson, and the two, with
three other staffers, meet weekly with the people in each Cabinet agency
assigned to the task force. The staffers have received thousands of
recommendations from hundreds of groups and met personally with many of them.
For Bush's task force, the challenge is to present the controversial calls
for more drilling, power plants and possibly nuclear power with plans for
conservation and renewable energy. "If our demand is outstripping our supply
even at the current pace, we will need 1,900 power generating plants to keep
up with demand by 2020," said Mary Matalin, a top Cheney adviser. She said
that because nuclear power is 20 percent of the nation's supply, the United
States must "at a minimum relicense" existing plants. But, she added, "we're
looking at a lot of renewables, alternative resources and technology to make
existing resources clean and safe." The emerging report is expected to be
divided into 10 broad chapters, beginning with several that address supply
and demand trends and the competing concerns about health, the environment
and the economy. There are also chapters on energy efficiency and renewable
fuels, but the bulk of the report is devoted to domestic oil and gas production,
investment in technology to find cleaner ways of burning coal, and the need
for expanded infrastructure. According to sources familiar with the report,
the task force will try hard to put a human face on the issue by including
examples of how energy shortages and soaring prices work the greatest hardships
on low-income families and minorities. Task force aides have also stressed
their interest in "market-based" initiatives and tax incentives to encourage
increased domestic production. Suggestions include a "smart" power-grid system
with flexible pricing that charges consumers more for power during peak hours
-- much as telephone companies do. Another possibility is an "energy ombudsman"
to deal with community objections to new power plants. Lindsey said he believes
in easing the regulations that have prevented new power plants from being
built. "There do seem to be legitimate regulatory hurdles and uncertainty,"
he said. "We don't want to ease clean air standards or anything like that,
but there's a need to ease the uncertainty." Overall, the task force will
take energy policy more in the direction of increasing supply than reducing
demand, which has been the dominant approach in recent years. Although demand
"is a matter of concern, certainly, it's mostly a supply problem," Lindsey
said. Cheney and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham have repeatedly called
for measures to expand the capacity of existing nuclear power plants and
to bring new ones on line to meet long-term energy needs. Also, as part of
his budget submission to Congress, Bush has proposed a 14 percent increase
in federal spending for a project studying whether to use Yucca Mountain,
90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as a permanent burial ground for 77,000
tons of high-level waste now stored at nuclear power plants and defense sites
nationwide. That proposal has encountered strong resistance in Nevada. Another
recommendation sure to cause consternation is domestic drilling. The task
force report will include Bush's proposal for oil exploration in Alaska's
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, despite strong opposition from influential
Republicans and Democrats as well as the leading environmental groups. Moreover,
the Interior Department has submitted recommendations for opening millions
of acres of public land to new oil and gas development, much of it in the
Rocky Mountains. Balancing those hot-button items, task force officials say
they will also have "hidden gems" that will please environmentalists. "We're
going to have conservation, we're going to have renewables, and thoughtful
pieces on the environment," one said. "There's pieces the renewables crowd
and energy efficiency groups will be very supportive of." Task force officials
have also said the report would not specify precisely where on public lands
to drill for oil and gas, leaving those decisions to future negotiations
between the administration, Congress and special interest groups.
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