Reaction to Bush's energy plan

Richard Gephardt

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Reaction to President Bush's energy plan came quickly Thursday in Washington, with most immediate reaction coming from Democrats. Here are some highlights:

House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Missouri:

"It's slick. It's full of pretty, colored pictures," Gephardt said. He described Bush's plan as looking like the "Exxon-Mobil annual report."

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-New Mexico

Bingaman said half of those points made by the administration call for federal government studies, rather than solutions to both short- and long-range problems. "We're all for these studies," he said, but virtually half of his recommendations are for feasibility studies."

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota

"President Bush today unveiled the energy policy that he and Vice President Cheney have been developing in secret, Daschle said. Citing a recent quote from Reagan Interior Secretary James Watt, Daschle said Bush's push for new exploration and drilling imitates an old policy. "'Twenty years later, they've dusted off the old work,'" Daschle quoted Watt as saying in a Denver newspaper interviews.

Daschle argued that Bush's fiscal 2002 federal budget provides more of a glimpse into his plans than his energy plan. Bush, he said would cut the federal government's conservation budget by 28 percent, and its research and development budget by even more.

Congressman Billy Tauzin

Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-Louisiana

Tauzin said price controls would extend the California blackouts. "Price caps would would have affect of lengthening the blackouts, because states won't be encouraged to sell their extra electricty at a lower price."

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa

Environmental degradation can be avoided, Harkin said, by further exploiting lands already designated for drilling, and by boosting production of alternative fuels, such as ethanol. "Ethanol will add 20 billion gallons of fuel to our supply this year alone," said Harkin. Ethanol can be made from corn, a key agriculture product in Harkin's state.

Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minnesota

Wellstone, called on Bush to use his office to push oil and fuel producers into voluntarily capping their prices, and to pressure the OPEC oil cartel to boost daily production. "If you want to do something for consumers, that is what you have to do as president," Wellstone said.