Editorial: You can’t dress up this mess

Wednesday, July 18, 2001 | 9:02 a.m.

Vice President Dick Cheney and Cabinet members fanned out across the nation on Monday, selling President Bush's energy plan during carefully staged town hall meetings. The Bush team touted conservation and technological advances that have resulted in more efficient uses of energy. Shunted aside were Bush's controversial measures, such as drilling for oil and natural gas in environmentally sensitive areas or developing more nuclear power, which produces deadly waste.

The administration's spin doctors went to great lengths to ensure that their message was conveyed, which is that Bush isn't beholden to big energy producers. For instance, at Cheney's town hall meeting in Monroe, Pa., a huge banner not only was green (the environmental movement's color of choice), but it also displayed prominently the words "conservation" and "efficiency" to make a none-too-subtle point.

But if the White House really wanted to level with the public, it would have set up events that are the core of Bush's energy strategy. A trip to Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the place that the federal government is studying to bury 77,000 tons of deadly nuclear waste, would have been a fitting tribute to the joys of nuclear power. It also was a shame that someone from the administration didn't make a stop in Alaska at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an environmentally sensitive area where Bush needlessly wants to drill for oil. If the White House was looking for beautiful pictures for television newscasts, it could have made a stop along Florida's beaches off the Gulf Coast, where the administration has proposed oil drilling.

Bush has said a nation's energy policy should be a long-term strategy. He's right. The problem is that the components of his plan too often actually are quick fixes and endanger the environment. For example, the administration has said that a site must be selected for nuclear waste storage if nuclear power is to be given a chance of succeeding. Even though the only place under consideration -- Yucca Mountain -- is a dangerous place to store nuclear waste, the White House agrees with the nuclear power industry that a site should be chosen quickly. But this is a false choice. The waste can be stored safely where the nuclear reactors are located for decades until a truly safe way can be found to dispose of the deadly garbage.

Bush will be poorly served if he listens to political advisers who believe his energy plan is being rejected by the public because of bad packaging. If the president doesn't change the substance of his energy policy, his plan will be doomed in Congress.