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President Bush’s 105-point plan to address the nation’s energy woes was welcomed Thursday by Northwest Republicans as a way to ease the region’s energy squeeze.
Their Democratic peers weren’t impressed.
“I think there’s not enough emphasis on conservation, and I think in the short term, conservation is something we can do that makes a difference,” said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton.
Dicks represents the North Olympic Peninsula in the 6th Congressional District.
The administration’s 163-page energy plan calls for increasing natural gas and oil supplies, and expanding the pipeline system that moves them.
That could provide some relief to the Northwest, where 29 natural gas-fired generating plants have been proposed to cover an energy shortfall anticipated even before California deregulation heated up energy markets.
The full report appears in the Friday/Saturday editions of the Peninsula Daily News, on sale throughout Clallam and Jefferson counties. The latest national stories on President Bush’s energy plan can be found by clicking on “AP Wire.”