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CNN Saturday Morning News

Reporter's Notebook: U.S. Energy Crisis, Mideast Violence

Aired May 19, 2001 - 09:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to begin this half hour with "Reporter's Notebook." CNN White House correspondent Kelly Wallace is fielding your comments about President Bush's energy proposals, or anything else you want to discuss, except your personal life, right, Kelly?

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, off limits.

PHILLIPS: That's off limits. We aren't...

WALLACE: No personal questions.

PHILLIPS: Although it's all good.

But anyway, we're going to also take phone calls, and Miles is sitting up right now with the e-mails. We've gotten plenty of them, Kelly. Are you ready, Miles? OK, we're -- OK, we're going to go to a call, Kelly.

We got Bob from Virginia on the line. Bob, go ahead. What's your question for Kelly?

CALLER: Good morning, Kyra, good morning, Miles. Miles better get hurrying up there.

PHILLIPS: Very good, Bob.

CALLER: Kelly, my question is this: What is the Bush plan for the energy crisis here in America? And who does it really benefit when he goes to a power plant and he's proposing more power plants that we haven't built in so many years? And on earlier, we had the two debaters about nuclear energy. Is that really something that they're looking at to help with the energy crunch? And are gas prices actually going to come down this summer?

WALLACE: Lots of questions there, Bob. Let me just say, it's a debatable point about who benefits, of course, from the president's energy plan. The president would say that he is offering long-term solutions that would eventually lead to an increase in the supply of oil and gas, also encourage conservation, and that all of this would have a psychological impact on the markets and eventually bring the prices down in the short term. Well, Democrats as well as environmentalists have a different take. They say this plan does nothing right now, immediately, to help consumers with rising prices at the pump and also with power shortages in California.

So again, debatable point about who would benefit right now.

Also, in terms of gas prices, it does appear that some inventories of oil are starting to increase even before the president's plan, so prices could potentially come down this summer.

And as for the nuclear question, you heard in the president's plan he definitely is putting a new emphasis on nuclear power, saying there's an unlimited supply of energy here, free of air pollution, so he is putting a new emphasis on nuclear power.

Democrats and Republicans, Bob, seem to both support this. There are nuclear plants in about 31 states. Calls for more plants, saying the safety measures have increased dramatically since the Three Mile Island back in 1979. So it seems to be consensus on nuclear right now.

Back to you guys.

PHILLIPS: All right, we're going to turn it over to Miles. He's over there at the SmartScreen. He's got all the e-mails lined up for you, Kelly -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The SmartScreen proving to be smarter than me this morning, but let's -- I got a pair of questions for you, Kelly, they're sort of related. We got a fair amount of e-mail from folks who are very high on the concept of renewable sources of energy, solar, wind, and that sort of thing. "The energy speech made here in Minnesota totally ignored the win-win possibility for our state. We have more wind than the Windy City, and we have learned that the electricity-producing windmills are an environmentally friendly producer of energy."

And then related to that -- that was from Joyce and Rod Pedley, by the way -- "Bush needs to get out of the pockets of his oil- producing buddies and listen to the rest of the nation. Renewable energy technologies are available and should be incorporated into his plan." That one came from Michele Collins.

To what extent, Kelly, is renewable a feature of this plan?

WALLACE: Well, you know, the White House would say renewable energies are definitely a feature of this plan. The president offering tax credits and incentives to encourage research on renewable energies, encourage businesses and consumers to use them. So the White House would say there is a definite emphasis on these.

Democrats and environmentalists, though, Miles, disagree, and think the president is putting too much emphasis, again, on increasing supply, building more power plants, opening more oil refineries, and not spending enough time and energy on renewable sources of energy. So again, debatable point. The White House says it is putting a lot of money behind this. You have seen the president touting energy efficiency, going to that innovative plan in Minnesota, which uses wood chips as well as oil, going to a hydroelectric dam in Pennsylvania yesterday. So the White House definitely trying to put the spotlight on renewable sources of energy, although Democrats still say the president's plan is too much benefiting the energy industry -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: And sort of on a related point, this is from Pamela Seals, Kelly, she says this, "Personally, I think that Bush is out for the Texas oil cartel without any regard to Americans." That perception is out there. To what extent is the White House attempting to address that issue, that perception?

WALLACE: Well, it did seem that the White House was trying to address that perception in this past week, when President Bush said that he was concerned and was going to make sure that no American is overcharged when it comes to gas prices or electricity prices. You have seen California Governor Gray Davis going out there on talk shows and in interviews, basically accusing the energy companies, many of them from Texas, of gouging consumers, charging outrageous prices, calling for some temporary price controls.

Miles, the White House is against price controls, saying that would discourage supply at a time of high demand. But definitely, it appears this administration feeling some of this heat, so it is saying that it is doing everything it can to be vigilant to make sure no price gouging is going on.

O'BRIEN: All right, Kelly, we're going to shift gears on the e- mail in just a second, but we -- first we have one more phone call, and Kyra's going to be the one-ringy-dingy lady on that one. Kyra, go ahead.

PHILLIPS: That's like Lily Tomlin, The Operator. Go ahead, Joe. Joe from Georgia's on the line.

CALLER: Yes, thank you very much. You all do a very fine job. Kelly, my question is, on the Bush tax cut, how much of the death tax will be eliminated in the first two years? And then is there any possibility there would be a capital gains tax cut added to the package to help the economy and the stock market?

WALLACE: Well, first, about the capital gains tax cut, it does not appear that that will be part of this package. This White House has made it clear that the president didn't offer that as part of his plan, and so he is basically pushing for the initiatives that he has put forward in his plan.

The death tax you raise is an interesting point. It looks like it would be repealed, but not for quite a number of years. I believe it's not till something like 2007 or maybe even beyond to 2011. So there is some concern that that tax cut won't come until early -- you know, will come too late for people to feel the benefits. The White House likely to try and push to get that tax cut, you know, phased in much earlier.

Also, the White House likely to push to have some more of the tax cuts when it comes to the upper income tax bracket phased in much earlier than the current Senate bill right now. So a lot more debate ahead. But the Senate could actually vote on this this coming week.

O'BRIEN: All right, Kelly, we're just about out of time, but I wanted to get this in because I promised we would. And essentially, I'm going to distill this, it's a little bit long. This comes from Michael Ajai. And he wants to know, "Why is George Bush doing nothing to stop the Israelis from killing the Palestinians?" He goes on to say that President Clinton was much more interventionist in the issue of the Middle East. And his perception is that Mr. Bush is doing less.

Is what is happening behind the scenes belying the public face here, or has the Bush administration decided to remain above the fray here?

WALLACE: Well, the White House is certainly somewhat frustrated, saying that it is doing more than maybe the American people think it is doing. It has stepped up its activity a bit, especially trying to get the Israelis and the Palestinians together in terms of security talks to try and reduce the violence.

No question, though, this White House, Miles, taking a different approach, thinking that the former administration, the Clinton administration, was maybe trying to force the two sides together when they were not ready. This White House saying until the violence ends, it really can't do much -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Kelly Wallace doing our Reporter's Notebook segment this morning. We do appreciate you taking questions from all over the place on all-over-the-place subjects. And we'll see you again next time soon, we hope.

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