Sacrifices necessary with new energy plan

President Bush must have the courage to ask the public to make some sacrifices as part of a “bold” energy plan he has promised to present in his State of the Union address this week, a Carter-era adviser said Saturday.

Participants in Saturday morning’s Carter Conference panel on energy, conservation and environment at the University of Georgia revived a theme that they said the past four presidents haven’t spoken of in connection with energy – sacrifice.

“If presidents are going to be really serious about this, they have to do what Carter did … throw caution to the wind,” said Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s chief domestic affairs adviser.

Eizenstat and former U.S. Sen. Howard Baker, a Tennessee Republican, said that Americans will have to sacrifice if they want to reduce their dependence on foreign oil, but the leader of an environmental lobby disagreed, saying that technology is the answer.

Athens Banner-Herald (Athens, Georgia)