Gore Plan Calls for Less Dependence on Imported Oil

As the nation continues to fixate on skyrocketing gas prices, Vice President Al Gore on Tuesday proposed a $75-billion plan to encourage industry to create cleaner forms of energy that would leave the nation less dependent on imported oil.

Though Gore’s proposal does not address the current high prices at the pump, particularly in the Midwest, it aims to lay the groundwork for a future in which alternative forms of energy, such as wind or methane siphoned off landfills, will become more common. The presumptive Democratic nominee for president said he would make available up to $4.2 billion in tax credits for companies that produce electricity from such renewable and alternative sources.

The largest portion of Gore’s plan--about $68 billion over 10 years--is the “technologies for tomorrow” challenge, which would reward energy companies that dramatically reduce health-threatening pollution.

The plan relies on a variety of financial instruments, such as tax incentives, loans, grants or bonds, as a perk for companies that achieve the biggest reductions in pollution at the least cost.

Gore Plans to Reward Consumers

Today, Gore will take his proposal a step further with a plan to reward consumers who purchase more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly products. “I want to give a tax cut to the consumers--the families--who buy the new cars and trucks and use the new technology that is at our fingertips,” he said.

On Tuesday, though, Gore kept the focus on industry. His “energy security and environment trust fund” would include $2 billion to spur private investment in new technologies and $1 billion in tax incentives to encourage the development of alternative sources of electrical power.

“We will say to the nation’s inventors and entrepreneurs: If you invest in these new technologies, America will invest in you,” Gore said.

In his 30-minute speech, delivered on an asphalt lot of the Trigen Energy Corp. in sticky, sweltering heat, Gore stressed how environmental protection can fuel economic growth, even in an already booming economy.

With less than a week to go in his final leg of a “progress and prosperity” campaign tour, Gore chose to unveil details of the energy plan at Trigen, surrounded by million-gallon tanks of fuel oil and clusters of hissing, smokeless smokestacks.

Using a cogeneration process to manufacture heating, cooling and electricity, Trigen is able to produce half the pollution of conventional methods while using half the amount of fossil fuels, officials said.

“You are producing power that is more than twice as efficient as the average power plant,” Gore told the workers, who managed a friendly welcome even as they baked in the heat. “And you have cut your greenhouse emissions in half. Your business is thriving.”

Gore’s plan drew mixed reviews Tuesday from industry analysts. The experts said the policy relies on alternative energy proposals that were tossed around during the oil crisis in the 1970s.

During that decade, the United States tried to lessen its dependence on foreign oil after Arab oil embargoes sent crude prices soaring and led to long lines at the gas pumps. It was then, for example, that programs to develop synthetic fuels from coal and shale were launched.

But the drive to develop alternative sources of clean--but expensive--fuel lost much of its steam after crude oil prices plunged in the mid-1980s.

Experts Express Skepticism

Gore’s effort to reduce the country’s dependence on imported oil struck Pietro S. Nivola, a senior fellow of government studies at the Brookings Institution, and others as a tired theme.

Although America imports about half of its oil, the country is 80% self-sufficient in terms of all energy sources.

“All this notion of energy independence is like deja vu,” Nivola said. “It’s amazing it’s back on the agenda. I thought it’d been laid to rest.”

Still, one industry group greeted Gore’s proposals warmly.

“One of the things I like about this is the vice president is attempting to use some of the carrots that the government has rather than the stick. He’s trying to encourage the market to react,” said Michael Marvin, president of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, a group of energy-related companies.

Reaction from some environmental groups was supportive but reserved.

“We’re glad he’s willing to earmark some of the surplus for incentives to reduce pollution, but what was missing was a detailed plan for cuts to those pollutants,” said Andy Igrejas, deputy director of Clear the Air, a coalition of three national environmental groups that advocates cleaner power production.

The speech comes as Republicans accuse Gore of having a flimsy energy plan and blame the Clinton administration for exorbitant gasoline costs in the Midwest, where pump prices have crept up to $2.30 per gallon.

Gore campaign officials have responded by calling George W. Bush “the Texas oilman,” in reference to his former executive position at a small oil company, and they have criticized his acceptance of more than $1.5 million in campaign contributions from oil and gas companies.

The vice president has received $100,000 from such supporters.

On Tuesday the vice president once again linked Bush, his Republican rival for the presidency, to the recent spike in gas prices. “My opponent comes out of big oil. His background is as an oil executive. He wanted an increase in gas prices even as profits this year went up 500%.”

Bush Puts Blame on Democrats

Bush, campaigning in the Detroit area, reacted sharply. “The vice president seems to have forgotten who’s been in office for seven years. This is the administration that’s been in charge, and the price of gasoline has gone steadily upward.”

Bush also chided the administration for failing to persuade Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Mideast oil producers to increase output sharply enough to bring down prices.

He suggested that U.S. efforts to aid those nations militarily ought to give Washington the diplomatic capital to call for higher output.

“The fact that they’ve tried and failed, and turn and blame me, is interesting politics,” Bush said.

Gore and Bush wrangled over whether the vice president had ever advocated raising gas taxes to encourage conservation.

Bush says he did and cites this passage from Gore’s book “Earth in the Balance”: “In fact, almost every poll shows Americans decisively rejecting higher taxes on fossil fuels, even though that proposal is one of the logical first steps in changing our policies in a manner consistent with a more responsible approach to the environment.”

In the book, Gore advocates a tax on producers of products giving off carbon dioxide. Gore said Tuesday that he did not call for raising gas prices. “I’ve made no such comments. I’m in favor of cutting taxes, not raising them.”

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Times staff writers Richard T. Cooper and Megan Garvey contributed to this story.