Editorial: Energy plan’s critics can’t be pigeonholed

Friday, May 18, 2001 | 4:11 a.m.

Critics of the White House's national energy plan sometimes have been stereotyped as tree-hugging throwbacks to the 1970s. But it's not accurate to pigeonhole those who oppose some elements of President Bush's energy plan. For instance, opposition to drilling for oil and natural gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska crosses party and ideological lines. And one provision of the president's plan that hasn't drawn much attention -- granting eminent domain authority to the federal government so that it can take private property to build power lines -- has drawn fire from a group that usually is one of Bush's ardent supporters: property rights' advocates in the West.

Nevadans, whose state has been unfairly targeted by the federal government to store high-level nuclear waste, can understand the concerns of property rights' advocates. If there is a silver lining in Bush's proposals, it is that it may reawaken Americans to what some of these energy choices would mean if a heavy-handed federal government is at work. Some citizens, who are genuinely worried about the prospect of power lines being built on or near their land without their input, may have a newfound sympathy to the plight of Nevadans. After all, we shudder to think about the possibility of the federal government forcing the burial of 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste so close to a major metropolitan area such as Las Vegas.