Bush's energy plan: Giddy but salvageable

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Long sections of President Bush's energy plan read like a brainstorming wish list from the oil and gas industry. No giddy idea is off limits.

But deep in the fine print are substantive and overdue improvements to the nation's energy infrastructure, such as construction of natural gas pipelines and expansion of the nation's electricity grid.

Bush's plan emphasizes energy production and supply, with more oil and drilling on public lands and efforts to jump-start the recumbent nuclear power industry. He also wants to streamline the permitting process for electrical power generation.

The power of the marketplace is already making a substantial piece of this happen with current regulations. Fleets of so-called merchant plants - built to sell electricity to the highest bidder - are coming online.

Attractive prices and the mushrooming of natural gas-fired generating plants have a thousand drilling rigs in production.

Needed is an effective distribution system. Bush is talking about adding 38,000 miles of pipelines. The role for Congress is to pass laws that mandate inspections and require old pipelines be tested and made safe.

Generating more electrical power only helps if can get to where it's needed. The Bonneville Power Administration is mentioned for special financial aid if needed to expand and upgrade the Western power grid.

For Bush and Vice President Cheney, two Texas oil men, the word conservation rests on the tongue like a tofu burger.

For them, conservation brings to mind President Jimmy Carter's infamous MEOW speech, invoking the energy crisis as the moral equivalent of war. Green groups have had to work out of that hole for two decades. Now, the argument is being recast. For the NW Energy Coalition, conservation is doing more with less, not doing without.

Power not used is energy that does not have to be generated; that ethic has saved Northwest ratepayers the expense of new generating capacity.

As power demands increase, the new juice is likely to come from efficient hydro and gas-fired plants.

Coal is abundant, but hindered by pollutants for which no safe standards exist. Bush wants to spend billions on clean-coal technology. Given the domestic supply of the fuel, that's a good investment.

The president's optimism about nuclear power has not been shared by the utilities, ratepayers, investors or Wall Street lenders. Nuclear is affordable only when the expense of liability and waste management is sloughed off on taxpayers.

Bush's focus on production, primarily finding new sources of oil and gas, might be a double-edged sword.

One piece of the plan - opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other pristine areas - is not necessary.

The petroleum industry might also wonder what a wholesale expansion of supply will do to prices.

Consumers angry at gas prices will not find any relief in the plan. Those low prices motorists loved were no incentive to expand refinery capacity, and gas-guzzling demand has soared. Add that to a national patchwork of tailored gasoline products to address local environmental problems, and supplies run short. More refinery capacity is needed.

Energy prices are key. Price is a powerful conservation incentive. As prices go higher, alternative forms of production - especially wind generation - become more attractive.

The best places for Congress to start is energy infrastructure - safe pipelines and the transmission grid - to move the new energy the market will provide.