From: irenewsletter <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Bush tapped solar energy funds to print energy plan


By Tom Doggett(p) WASHINGTON, March 28 (Reuters)

While environmentalists have slammed the White House national energy
plan for not doing enough to promote renewable energy, the Bush
administration found those government research programs useful in paying the

bill for printing copies of the 170-page plan.

The administration took money from the Energy Department's solar and
renewable energy and energy conservation budgets to pay for the cost of
printing its national energy plan.

Documents released under court order by the Energy Department this week
revealed that $135,615 was spent from the DOE's solar, renewables and energy

conservation budget to produce 10,000 copies of the White House energy plan
released last May.

Another $1,317.39 was spent for producing 16 "briefing boards" used by
administration officials to illustrate and explain the White House energy
plan.

The newly released documents also show that $176.40 was taken from the
energy conservation program to pay for an Alaska trip by Andrew Lundquist,
the White House energy task force's staff director, to promote the energy
plan.

The administration's energy policy called for drilling in Alaska's
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a proposal strongly opposed by
environmentalists.

At the same time the White House tapped the renewable budget for funds
to print the energy plan, administration was urging Congress to cut the
renewable and energy efficiency research budgets by more than 50 percent.

Vice President Dick Cheney, who headed the White House energy task
force, criticized environmentalists for relying too much on renewables and
conservation to solve the nation's energy problems. "Conservation may be a
sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound,
comprehensive energy policy," Cheney said two weeks before the energy plan
was released last May.

The administration did try to spread around the cost of producing the
energy plan.

It dipped into the DOE's fossil energy program, which covers primarily
oil research, to pay $100.92 for a hotel room near the Government Printing
Office where the policy publication was being produced.

The documents did not name the official or if the hotel offered a
government rate.

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