Opponents cry foul as Bush energy plan okay urged Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - Mark Graffis Opponents cry foul as Bush energy plan okay urged by Jeff Franks HOUSTON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton said last week that quick passage of the controversial Bush administration energy plan would increase U.S. security after the Sept. 11 attacks, but environmentalists accused the White House of exploiting the tragedy to drum up support for the bill. Norton called on the U.S. Senate, where the fate of the plan now rests, to approve it soon because of what she said was an urgent need for its key proposal - opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska for oil exploration. "We're asking the U.S. Senate to take action immediately," Norton told reporters after a speech to the Independent Petroleum Association of America annual meeting. "American energy independence has become even more important in the aftermath of terrorist attacks." She said the administration was pressuring the Senate, where Democrats hold a majority, because time is of the essence. It would take at least five years to get oil production from the refuge, which is thought to have more than 10 billion barrels of reserves, Norton said. "A lot of these things we're talking about are things that take time. It makes sense to go ahead and begin moving so that we begin to see the results," she said. Environmentalists oppose the plan because they do not want the refuge, now a pristine wilderness filled with wildlife, turned into an oilfield. They accuse President George W. Bush, a former Texas oilman, of doing the oil industry's bidding at the expense of the environment. Tom Maddux, a member of the Sierra Club executive committee in Houston, said the Bush administration was shamelessly exploiting the attacks, in which some 5,000 people were thought to have died, for political gain. "It's really a stinking situation. They're trying to use the national emergency to build support for their selfish purposes," he told Reuters. "Secretary Norton's agenda is the narrow agenda of the oil and gas industry, not the agenda of the American people," said Maddux, who was outside the Norton press conference to offer a rebuttal to her statements. The energy plan was approved by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, but has been slowed in the Senate by the Capitol Hill anthrax scare. Energy Committee chairman Jeff Bingaman said this week that debate on the proposal could be put off until next year. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytenv-10.30.01-09:38:36-11444