Conservation, Reagan Style

Ronald Reagan’s very first act as President in January, 1981, was to turn up the thermostat at the White House. That set the tone for the next five years. So much for energy conservation.

Given that history, it is astounding to read in the President’s 1986 national energy report that the United States has managed a “remarkable transformation” to a healthy energy system. Because of decontrol policies, American energy is more diversified and efficient than ever, although we must continue to strive for more efficiency, alternative energy sources and greater conservation, it says.

The fact is that conservation, efficiency and alternatives have been achieved in spite of Administration policy, not because of it. The evidence is in the President’s own 1987 budget: funds for energy conservation reduced by $100 million, filling of the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve halted, residential tax credits for conservation and alternative sources down from nearly $800 million in 1983 to zero, and aid for the weatherization of schools, hospitals and the homes of low-income families to be terminated. Alternative fuel production qualifies for $15 million in tax credits.

Yet the government spends hundreds of millions to prop up an economically crippled nuclear-power industry, and ratepayers are paying billions for plants that may never generate a kilowatt of electricity. And the Administration continues to dole out $3 billion annually in tax credits to the oil and gas industry, and hundreds of millions to coal and other traditional energy sources.

Serious promotion of conservation, weatherization and alternative sources could virtually eliminate the need for any more giant electric-power plants, OPEC oil and probably even oil offshore from California. Most conservation investments need be made only once, not year after year. But they will not be made so long as conventional energy is so heavily subsidized and alternatives are not.

Let the President take credit for lower oil prices, if he wants. But we are running out of oil just as surely as we were five years ago. And his own budget demonstrates that it is specious, at best, for this Administration to promote itself as the champion of wise energy policy.