Gore, Bush Square Off on Energy Proposals
The first presidential debate between Democratic candidate Vice President Al Gore and Republican contender Texas Gov. George Bush took place at the University of Massachusetts tonight while thousands of demonstrators from half a dozen factions clashed with police in the streets outside.
The first presidential debate between Democratic candidate Vice President Al Gore and Republican contender Texas Gov. George Bush took place at the University of Massachusetts tonight while thousands of demonstrators from half a dozen factions clashed with police in the streets outside.
The environmental issues were covered early in a debate that focused mainly on tax cuts and prescription drug benefits for Medicare recipients. It was a question from debate moderator and television newscaster Jim Lehrer asking the candidates to contrast their proposals for preventing future oil price and supply problems that elicited their environmental views.
Asked to respond first, Gore said his plan focuses "not only on increasing the supply which I think we have to do, but also on working on the consumption side."
"In the short term," Gore said, "we have to free ourselves from the domination of the big oil companies that have the ability to manipulate the price, from OPEC when they want to raise the price. And in the long term we have to give new incentives for the development of domestic resources like deep gas in the western Gulf [of Mexico] like stripper wells for oil, but also renewable sources of energy and domestic sources that are cleaner and better."
Gore said his plan "will give tax credits and tax incentives for the rapid development of new kinds of cars and trucks and buses and factories and boilers and furnaces that don't have as much pollution, that don't burn as much energy, and that help us get out on the cutting edge of new technologies."
These technologies will create "millions of new jobs because when we sell these new products here, we'll then be able to sell them overseas, and there's a ravenous demand for them overseas," Gore said.
"Now another big difference is, Gov. Bush is proposing to open up some of our most precious national treasures like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the big oil companies to go in and start producing oil there. I think that is the wrong choice," Gore said.
"It will only give us a few months worth of oil, and the oil wouldn't start flowing for many years into the future, and I don't think it's a fair price to pay to destroy precious parts of America's environment," the vice president said.
"We have to bet on the future and move beyond current technologies to have a whole new generation of more efficient, cleaner energy technologies," said Gore.
Bush at once reminded the audience of his family's history in the oil business. "It's an issue I know a lot about," he said. "I was a small oil person for a while in West Texas." In 1997, Bush founded an oil and gas exploration company, Arbusto Corporation in Midland, Texas and worked in the energy business until 1986.
The Texas governor accused the Clinton/Gore administration of having no plan to deal with energy price and supply.
"We need an active exploration program in America," Bush said. "The only way to become less dependent on foreign sources of crude oil is to explore at home. And you bet I want to open up a small part of Alaska because when that field is online it will produce a million barrels of oil a day.
"Today we import a million barrels from [Iraqi leader] Sadam Hussein. I would rather that a million come from our own hemisphere, our own country as opposed from Sadam Hussein," Bush said. "I want to build more pipelines to move natural gas throughout this hemisphere. I want to develop the coal resources of America and have clean coal technologies."
"We've got abundant supplies of energy here in America, and we better get after it and better start exploring it otherwise we're going to be in deep trouble in the future because of our dependency on foreign sources of crude," said Bush.
Saying there is abundant coal in America, Bush promised to ask Congress for two billion dollars for clean coal technologies.
Gore agreed about clean coal technology, but stressed his focus on new technologies that would make America "less dependent on big oil or foreign oil."
Bush said, "We need to explore at home." In Alaska, he said, "there's a lot of shut in gas that we need to be moving out of Alaska by pipeline."
Bush raised another environmental issue when he opposed the removal of four dams of the Lower Snake River that produce hydroelectric energy. Environmentalists say the dams should be breached so that endangered salmon can reach their spawning grounds upstream. Bush said, "I'm against removing dams in the Northwest. That's a renewable source of energy we need to keep in line."
The vice president blamed the Republican-led Congress for its opposition to the administration's efforts to move the country towards renewable energy technologies.
Profiles of the Debaters:
Texas Gov. George W. Bush graduated with a B.A. in History from Yale University in 1968. He earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1975. He was managing general partner of Texas Rangers baseball franchise from 1989 to 1994.
He was elected governor in 1994 and re-elected in 1998. He served as an aide to his father, former President George Bush from 1987 to 1992. He made an unsuccessful run for Congress in 1978.
Vice President Al Gore holds a degree in government, with honors, Harvard University, 1969. He attended Divinity School in Tennessee and attended Vanderbilt Law School. He was a newspaper reporter with The Nashville Tennessean. In 1992, Gore authored "Earth in the Balance" on environmental topics.
He has been vice president of the United States from 1993 to the present. Gore was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1988. He represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate from 1985 to 1992. He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1976 to 1984.
The environmental issues were covered early in a debate that focused mainly on tax cuts and prescription drug benefits for Medicare recipients. It was a question from debate moderator and television newscaster Jim Lehrer asking the candidates to contrast their proposals for preventing future oil price and supply problems that elicited their environmental views.
Asked to respond first, Gore said his plan focuses "not only on increasing the supply which I think we have to do, but also on working on the consumption side."
"In the short term," Gore said, "we have to free ourselves from the domination of the big oil companies that have the ability to manipulate the price, from OPEC when they want to raise the price. And in the long term we have to give new incentives for the development of domestic resources like deep gas in the western Gulf [of Mexico] like stripper wells for oil, but also renewable sources of energy and domestic sources that are cleaner and better."
Gore said his plan "will give tax credits and tax incentives for the rapid development of new kinds of cars and trucks and buses and factories and boilers and furnaces that don't have as much pollution, that don't burn as much energy, and that help us get out on the cutting edge of new technologies."
These technologies will create "millions of new jobs because when we sell these new products here, we'll then be able to sell them overseas, and there's a ravenous demand for them overseas," Gore said.
"Now another big difference is, Gov. Bush is proposing to open up some of our most precious national treasures like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the big oil companies to go in and start producing oil there. I think that is the wrong choice," Gore said.
"It will only give us a few months worth of oil, and the oil wouldn't start flowing for many years into the future, and I don't think it's a fair price to pay to destroy precious parts of America's environment," the vice president said.
"We have to bet on the future and move beyond current technologies to have a whole new generation of more efficient, cleaner energy technologies," said Gore.
Bush at once reminded the audience of his family's history in the oil business. "It's an issue I know a lot about," he said. "I was a small oil person for a while in West Texas." In 1997, Bush founded an oil and gas exploration company, Arbusto Corporation in Midland, Texas and worked in the energy business until 1986.
The Texas governor accused the Clinton/Gore administration of having no plan to deal with energy price and supply.
"We need an active exploration program in America," Bush said. "The only way to become less dependent on foreign sources of crude oil is to explore at home. And you bet I want to open up a small part of Alaska because when that field is online it will produce a million barrels of oil a day.
"Today we import a million barrels from [Iraqi leader] Sadam Hussein. I would rather that a million come from our own hemisphere, our own country as opposed from Sadam Hussein," Bush said. "I want to build more pipelines to move natural gas throughout this hemisphere. I want to develop the coal resources of America and have clean coal technologies."
"We've got abundant supplies of energy here in America, and we better get after it and better start exploring it otherwise we're going to be in deep trouble in the future because of our dependency on foreign sources of crude," said Bush.
Saying there is abundant coal in America, Bush promised to ask Congress for two billion dollars for clean coal technologies.
Gore agreed about clean coal technology, but stressed his focus on new technologies that would make America "less dependent on big oil or foreign oil."
Bush said, "We need to explore at home." In Alaska, he said, "there's a lot of shut in gas that we need to be moving out of Alaska by pipeline."
Bush raised another environmental issue when he opposed the removal of four dams of the Lower Snake River that produce hydroelectric energy. Environmentalists say the dams should be breached so that endangered salmon can reach their spawning grounds upstream. Bush said, "I'm against removing dams in the Northwest. That's a renewable source of energy we need to keep in line."
The vice president blamed the Republican-led Congress for its opposition to the administration's efforts to move the country towards renewable energy technologies.
Profiles of the Debaters:
Texas Gov. George W. Bush graduated with a B.A. in History from Yale University in 1968. He earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1975. He was managing general partner of Texas Rangers baseball franchise from 1989 to 1994.
He was elected governor in 1994 and re-elected in 1998. He served as an aide to his father, former President George Bush from 1987 to 1992. He made an unsuccessful run for Congress in 1978.
Vice President Al Gore holds a degree in government, with honors, Harvard University, 1969. He attended Divinity School in Tennessee and attended Vanderbilt Law School. He was a newspaper reporter with The Nashville Tennessean. In 1992, Gore authored "Earth in the Balance" on environmental topics.
He has been vice president of the United States from 1993 to the present. Gore was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1988. He represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate from 1985 to 1992. He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1976 to 1984.
