U.S. Launches Campaign to Conserve Energy

The Bush Administration launched a campaign last week to encourage individuals and businesses to cut back on energy use in light of expected record-high prices for natural gas and heating oil this winter due to tight supplies caused by infrastructure damage from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. “This effort will provide consumers, industry, and federal agencies with a variety of energy saving ideas, which, if done properly, can yield significant savings,” Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman says. To help improve the efficiency of 200 of the country’s most energy-intensive facilities by 10%, DOE will send out teams of experts to help refineries, chemical plants, and other manufacturing facilities devise ways to reduce their energy consumption. The American Chemistry Council says chemical makers have already made “significant progress” in energy efficiency and stresses that what is needed are new supplies of natural gas. The chemical industry is the largest industrial consumer of natural gas, which is also used to heat more than half of American homes. Senate Democratic Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) calls the conservation campaign “toothless” with no commitment by the federal government to reduce its own energy consumption.