Bush Energy Plan Whacks Conservation

Christian Science Monitor – The push to solve the nation’s energy woes are bumping up against the federal government’s budget problems. To be sure, the Bush administration is anxious to fund its new Advanced Energy Initiative – long-term research into nuclear, coal, wind, solar, and hydrogen power. But to accomplish that, it is cutting lesser-known programs like ITP whose payoffs are far more near-term.

“This is the worst time to be cutting these programs,” says William Prindle, deputy director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a Washington think tank. “At this point in time, with high energy prices and pressures, you’d think maybe we’d want to invest in a suite of energy-efficiency programs that make a dent right away.”
Christian Science Monitor