Conservative forum

Human Events, Sep 17, 2001

Energy Plan Would Cut Cost, Increase Production

"President Bush's energy plan would cut electricity costs and curb U.S. dependence on foreign oil," says the Heritage Foundation in announcing a new report from its Center for Data Analysis. "The President's proposal, passed nearly intact by the House of Representatives before the August recess, also would boost energy production and economic growth."

"By 2020," says Heritage, "the Bush plan would boost energy by 20% beyond what would occur under present law." And "its conservation programs would cut energy demand by 4.2 quadrillion British thermal units-enough energy to run almost 40 million homes for one year."

"Washington policymakers have three choices," says William Beach, author of the report. "They can do nothing and prolong the imbalance between energy demand and supply. They can opt for quick fixes that may be popular but won't solve the problem for any period of time. Or they can enact a long-term strategy that will beet the nation's energy needs for decades to come."

Beach says Bush has "chosen the third course," and thereby has chosen a plan that "corrects the imbalance of supply and demand, assures America's energy future, and provides responsible stewardship of the country's natural resources."

For more information, call 202-5464400. Heritage publications are available on the Internet at www.heritage.org.

CRC Starts Website To Monitor Greens

At luncheon reception last Monday, Capital Research Center President Terrence Scanlon, announced CRC has opened a new website, Green-Watch.com, which will track the activities of leftist environmental groups. On hand to praise the website and its potential uses were Representatives Butch Otter (R.-Idaho) and George Radanovich (R.-Calif.).

The site, available free to everyone, carries a database of all of the sources of funding for various green groups. The database also includes information on the groups' issues and particular crusades as well as links to news stories about the organizations.

Otter, saying that "the Environmental Protection Agency has declared martial law on the environment," stressed that the radical green groups must be followed closely and all government grants to them must be seriously questioned.

Rep. Pitts Reacts To Acts of War

Rep. Joe Pitts (R.-Pa.) delivered the following statement on Sept. 12, 2001, one day after terrorists hijacked four American commercial airline jets and successfully used three of them to destroy the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and to severely damage the Pentagon, causing casualties that are expected to run in the thousands:

"What happened yesterday was not a crime, it was an act of war. It was an act of war perpetrated by men who hate freedom and consequently also hate America. It is precisely because America continues to be a beacon of freedom to the world that we have suffered this tragedy.

I "But we have not been weakened by it. We have been strengthened. No one should.question our resolve to respond and to redouble our efforts to spread the gospel of freedom.

"Half a century ago, the Japanese took 2,403 American lives at Pearl Harbor. The Japanese thought we were weak, but soon learned otherwise. It seems likely that many more lives were lost yesterday at the hands of cowards unwilling to show their faces and defend whatever justifications they have contrived. Our strength, our national resolve, our patriotic unity is as strong today as it was in 1941-and our enemies will soon know it.

"We will find out who this enemy is. We will seek them out and punish them severely. There will be no distinction made between them and their defenders. We will not seek justice of the kind seen in courtrooms. We will seek justice of the kind seen in war. Yesterday's action was a declaration of war against the United States of America, and we will respond in kind. "As thousands of bodies are pulled out of the rubble in New York and Virginia, we are witnesses to more than a tragedy. We are witnesses to a turning point in American policy. No longer will we coddle terrorists and seek to bring them to the courtrooms. Instead, we will treat them as the military enemies they are.

"Those who are guilty today are guilty because freedom and democracy threaten to undo the tyranny and radicalism they want to defend. At the end of the day, they will lose. America will make sure of it."