Cheney to head energy task forceThe panel, commissioned by President Bush, will focus on solving short-term energy problems, like California's, and on cutting U.S. reliance on foreign oil. BY JIM PUZZANGHERA WASHINGTON -- Describing California as the poster child for the electricity woes the nation could face, President Bush on Monday commissioned a special energy task force to study how to cope with rising prices and increase domestic energy production. "We're very aware in this administration that the situation in California is beginning to affect neighboring states,'' Bush said in public remarks before the one-hour private meeting at the White House. "Western governors came to see the vice president, and they came to see me as well. And they're deeply concerned about the situation spreading beyond California's borders, and so are we.'' The task force, which will be headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, met Monday for the first time at the White House. Bush promised his administration will act "boldly and swiftly'' to deal with short-term problems such as California's electricity crisis and the longer-term issue of reducing U.S. reliance on foreign oil. Bush administration officials repeated their intention to allow drilling in part of the environmentally sensitive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to increase domestic energy production. Bush is dispatching Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and the newly appointed head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Curt Hebert Jr., to meet with Western governors on the energy situation Thursday and Friday. Bush on Monday praised Abraham for last week granting California a two-week extension of emergency orders forcing electricity and natural gas suppliers to sell to the state's financially troubled utilities. That order expires at 3 a.m. on Feb. 7, and Bush officials have said the Energy Department will not issue additional orders. State officials have said those emergency orders have been crucial to preventing more widespread blackouts, and California Gov. Gray Davis asked for the two-week extension to give the state Legislature enough time to pass a plan to resolve the crisis. Although California's situation was discussed at the meeting, "there was no new ground broken,'' said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. The goal of the task force is a "national solution, but you can't talk about a national solution without talking about California. California's terribly important,'' he said. But Bush reiterated his belief that the solution to California's energy woes lies largely with the state itself and that California's deregulation policy is to blame for most of the electricity problems. "It's now up to the people of California, the elected officials of California, to correct a flawed law, and we're encouraged that they're doing so,'' Bush said. Abraham was among the members of the task force, which includes two Cabinet secretaries with strong California connections -- Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta, who represented San Jose in Congress for 20 years, and Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, who was the head of the state's Department of Food and Agriculture from 1995 to 1999. Commerce Secretary Don Evans and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill also attended the meeting. In addition, the task force will include Gale Norton, the nominee for Interior Secretary, and Christine Todd Whitman, the nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, once they are confirmed by the Senate, said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan. The group will not include people outside the administration, such as Ken Lay, chairman and CEO of Enron Corp., who is one of Bush's top energy advisers, she said. Texas-based Enron, which buys and sells power, is one of the major players in California's electricity market. Lay is a close friend of Bush who also is one of his largest political contributors and was a prominent fundraiser for his presidential campaign. Bush, Cheney and Evans all have strong ties to the energy industry. Bush worked in the oil industry for a decade in Texas, Evans headed energy company Tom Brown Inc., and Cheney spent 1995 to 2000 running Halliburton Co., an energy services company specializing in developing oil and gas production around the world. Bush said Cheney's ties to the industry would not lead to policies that favor oil companies over consumers. "Dick Cheney is a person who loves America and cares about the future of the country, just like I do,'' Bush said. ``And he understands what I understand: that if we don't find more energy supplies to meet the growing demand in places like California, the consumer's going to pay a dear price. During the course of the campaign, we spent a lot of time talking about the need to develop a national energy policy, and that's exactly what we're going to do.'' Bush proposed an $7.1 billion national energy policy during the presidential campaign that called for increasing energy assistance to low-income households, working with foreign countries to develop energy resources and increasing domestic energy production. Bush wants to open up some federal lands to oil and natural gas exploration, encourage more refineries and pipelines to be built, help utilities purchase nuclear power plants and develop new technologies to burn coal in a cleaner way. In Alaska, Bush has proposed opening 1.5 million acres, or 8 percent of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to oil exploration -- a move that is strongly opposed by environmental groups. Bush has also said he wants to ease environmental regulations that cause power plants to temporarily shut down and that limit the building of new refineries. "It's becoming very clear to the country that demand is outstripping supply, that there are more users of electricity and natural gas than there is new units being found, and we've got to do something about that in this country,'' Bush said Monday. "We understand -- fully understand -- what high energy costs can mean to people in America, and we're going to formulate a strategy to deal with it.''
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