Bush pushes alt energy plan; Dems push back

The Bush administration today announced the first-ever national goals for increasing use of alternative fuels in cars and trucks, but several environmental groups and an influential member of Congress said the plan could do more harm than good in efforts to curb global warming because the package of new fuels includes liquid coal.

Senior administration officials also asked Congress for the ability to change the fuel-economy standards for vehicles, even though many experts say the executive branch already has that power.

The administration's alternative fuel plan would require that at least 7.5 billion gallons of such fuels be blended into the nation's use of fuel for cars and trucks by 2012, and at least 35 billion gallons by 2017 -- a nearly five-fold increase in five years. This year, the target is to reach roughly 4.7 billion gallons of alternative fuel, which is largely ethanol, produced mainly from corn, and biodiesel, made largely with vegetable oil.

The goal: Reduce the country's reliance on foreign oil by 20 percent in the next decade.

``This is an important first step of jumping off that treadmill of dependence on foreign oil ... and dramatically increasing the use of alternative fuels,'' US EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson told reporters.

Johnson called the proposal, which must be approved by Congress, a ``hat trick -- it protects the environment, strengthens our energy security and supports America's farmers.''

But on the most pressing issue related to global warming facing the administration -- last week's Supreme Court decision that ruled against the federal government and said the Environmental Protection Agency has the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles -- Johnson repeatedly said today it was too early to talk about the government's response.

Critics said he was needlessly delaying action.

``There are only two ways they can respond,'' said David Doniger, climate policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. ``They can look at the science and conclude that global warming is real, human emissions are causing it, and they will regulate. Or they could try to come up with some scientific rationale why car emissions aren't contributing to global warming.'' The administration today preferred to keep the focus on its alternative fuel proposal.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said that he hoped the main technological breakthroughs would come from ethanol made from switchgrass or wood chips. He said that liquid coal ``will not be a particularly important component. It was included because of its enhancement of energy security in this country. That's the reason for it.''

But Representative Edward J. Markey, the Malden Democrat and chairman of the newly formed House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said including liquid coal ``actually has the potential for increasing the greenhouse gas problem for the planet'' because of carbon dioxide emissions from burning the coal.

``What the president is doing is blurring the distinction between renewable fuels and alternative fuels,'' Markey said in an interview.

Bodman and Johnson both said that they believed in the possibility of ``clean coal,'' in which carbon dioxide emissions could be stored in underground caverns -- a technology now in use in small-scale projects, but done at high cost.

On fuel efficiency standards, Markey has introduced a bill calling for a mandatory 4 percent annual increase in gas mileage for the next decade, resulting in an average of 35 miles per gallon for all vehicles, including SUVs, by 2018. President Bush has called for a 4 percent increase next year, but the administration opposes a mandatory standard.

John Donnelly can be reached at donnelly@globe.com