Cheney calls for increased oil drilling in Alaska

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republican vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney said Sunday the United States ought to boost its oil production by expanding drilling in Alaska and building more refineries.

Cheney, who left a lucrative post with a Texas oil-services company to join the GOP ticket, suggested some environmental standards might have to be relaxed to accomplish that goal.

Cheney

"If you're not going to develop our domestic resources, you'd better get used to liking Iraqi oil," Cheney said on "CNN's Late Edition."

"You get to the point here where you can't have it both ways," Cheney said.

'A pollution policy'

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said Republican policies would only increase dependence on oil and said Cheney's proposal of expanded drilling was not the answer to the expected heating oil shortage.

"That is not an energy policy," Harkin said. "That is a pollution policy."

Harkin expressed skepticism about Cheney's statement that he would not support expanded oil drilling off the environmentally sensitive California coast.

"I don't trust him on the coastlines," Harkin said.

Cheney said he would support legislation to "free up" anti-drilling regulations in Alaska's Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge, which environmentalists want to keep off-limits to drilling.

He also called for reducing "bureaucratic red tape" to allow more oil refineries to be built, saying a new one had not been constructed in the United States in 10 years.

'More dependent than ever'

Appearing also on Fox News Sunday, Cheney was asked whether the government should relax environmental standards to allow the construction of more refineries.

"I think you've got to go look at them and see whether or not that's appropriate," Cheney said. "The bottom line is, without additional crude and without additional refinery capacity, we've become more dependent than ever before on foreign sources. This administration has allowed that to happen."

Cheney: Clinton performed a 'charade'

Cheney also joined a host of other Republicans who have criticized the Clinton administration decision on Friday to tap into the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a supply intended for emergency use only.

On Saturday Clinton defended his decision to release 30 million barrels of oil as "prudent" to guard against a projected shortage this winter of higher-priced heating oil.

Cheney called Clinton's action a "charade," saying there was no guarantee the additional oil would reduce prices. He dismissed the decision as a political ploy to benefit the Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Al Gore.

"They're now using it to try to buy him some relief in terms of the campaign this fall," Cheney said on "Late Edition."

'Not meant to manipulate'

But Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, appearing Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," defended Clinton.

Richardson explained that Clinton's reserve release was not meant to manipulate oil prices but to increase this winter's supply of heating oil.

Clinton, Richardson added, might also call for more oil to be tapped from the reserve. "I think, after 30 days, an assessment will be made," he said.

Stocks of home-heating oil are particularly low in the Northeast, Richardson said, down 65 percent from what they were last year.

Richardson welcomed the $3 to $4 drop in the price of a barrel of oil since Friday, saying: "The main objective was to ensure we had adequate stocks this winter."

National energy policy

Also appearing on NBC, Gov. Tom Ridge, R-Pennsylvania, called Clinton's decision to tap the reserve "politics as usual ... The bottom line is we don't have the (refining) capacity to take it from crude."

Ridge said a long-term energy policy, "which this government doesn't have," is needed to solve the problem.

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, responded by accusing congressional Republicans of blocking Clinton administration efforts to legislate a national energy policy.