Kerry Says Bush Energy Policies Favor Industry

In a scathing critique of White House energy policies, Sen. John F. Kerry accused President Bush on Monday of coddling oil industry polluters and failing to stop the rising cost of gasoline and home heating fuel.

The Democratic presidential nominee cast Bush’s energy record as part of a White House pattern of favoring wealthy and well-connected supporters over the middle class.

“The only people George Bush’s policies are working for are the people that he’s chosen to help,” said Kerry, who named the oil industry, drug companies and health insurers as White House favorites.

Kerry’s energy speech came as he began two days of preparation in Santa Fe for his third and final debate with Bush on Wednesday in Tempe, Ariz. He spent much of the day meeting privately at his hotel, the Inn and Spa at Loretto, with his debate team leader, Ron Klain, strategist Bob Shrum, campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill and other advisors.

The energy speech, along with a rally Sunday night in Albuquerque, offered no new proposals. But it enabled Kerry to capture front-page headlines and local television coverage in one of the most competitive states of the election.

Bush, who also campaigned Monday in New Mexico, lost the state to Al Gore in 2000 by 366 votes. Recent polls have found Bush and Kerry running nearly even in New Mexico, which offers five of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

In response to Kerry’s speech, Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt called the Massachusetts senator “completely hypocritical” on energy. He accused Kerry of appealing to environmentalists by promoting his opposition to oil drilling while assuring labor unions that he would “drill everywhere.”

“John Kerry will tell people whatever he thinks they want to hear, and his multiple positions are destroying his credibility with the American people,” Schmidt said.

Addressing hundreds of supporters at a Santa Fe convention hall, Kerry faulted Bush for record-high oil prices, saying his “gross mismanagement” of the Iraq war was partly to blame.

“High energy costs have pushed up prices across the board, from the food that you have on your table to the clothes that you and your children wear,” Kerry said.

He also criticized Bush for making no progress in curbing U.S. dependence on Middle East oil and laid out his own plan for doing so, which relies heavily on expansion of alternative energy sources.

He slammed administration proposals to exempt energy companies from pollution standards and ease the way for new drilling in “sensitive wildlife habitats” such as the Otero Mesa in southern New Mexico’s Chihuahuan Desert.