America’s Energy Future Debated

Amid record-high gasoline prices, America’s energy future has emerged as a major issue in this year’s U.S. elections. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports from Washington, Democrats and Republicans are offering markedly different plans to address the issue.

…With anger rising across the country, U.S. politicians are responding with a flurry of proposals. Texas Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s plan focuses on increasing U.S. oil production by authorizing drilling in, among other places, an ecologically-sensitive region in Alaska.

President Bush has also urged expanded drilling in Alaska, but leaders in the Democratically-controlled Congress say it would take years before the initiative actually yielded oil, and the added production would only marginally boost domestic supplies.

More fundamentally, Democrats say the long-term key to addressing America’s energy needs is not to scour the earth in search of finite reserves of fossil fuels, but to stress conservation while redirecting consumption towards alternative energy sources.

Voice of America