Washington, DC, June 27, 2000 – “Vice President Gore’s new environmental proposals are wrapped in the rhetoric of lower energy prices and market-based solutions.  But after peeling away the layers of verbal camouflage, the reality underneath is quite different.  Mr. Gore’s plan is about government control of energy use, lower consumption, and higher prices.

“The highly-touted ‘incentives’ are payoffs to special interests designed to build enough political support for the program to force it on the American people.  Under Gore’s proposals, everyone can make money and consumers will pay the bill.

“The Clinton-Gore Administration has spent seven years working to reduce energy supplies and raise energy costs.  And they got their wish with $2 a gallon gas and looming electricity shortages this summer.  Now, Vice President Gore wants to take this plan one step further by inserting government control and interference in every aspect of energy production and consumption.”

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Myron Ebell is the Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.  He also chairs the Cooler Heads Coalition, a subgroup of the National Consumers Coalition which focuses on climate change issues.  Mr. Ebell has written widely on environmental, energy, and economic policy and makes frequent media appearances, including such outlets as CNN’s Talkback Live, Hardball with Chris Matthews, C-SPAN, ABC News Radio, and Voice of America. 

Also available for comment on Gore’s energy and environmental proposals:

Ben Lieberman – CEI environmental  and legal policy analyst

Chris Horner – Cooler Heads Coalition legal counsel and CEI policy analyst

Paul Georgia – Managing editor of the Cooler Heads newsletter and CEI environmental policy analyst

CEI, a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group founded in 1984, is dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. For more information, please contact Emily McGee, director of media relations, at 202-331-1010, ext. 209.