Some see flaws in Bush plan to end US 'addiction' to foreign oil

WASHINGTON -- Invoking a vision of an America freed from ''addiction" to Middle Eastern oil, President Bush yesterday joined a series of Oval Office occupants who have planted rhetorical flags in the sands of energy independence.

In 1974, President Nixon announced a Manhattan Project-style program to end the grip of foreign oil on the American economy, but it fizzled after he resigned.

Later that decade, President Carter advised Americans to turn down their thermostats and put on a sweater, but his call for conservation invited ridicule.

Last night, specialists warned that Bush's plans could falter in similar ways, by putting too much faith in alternative-fuel technologies that have been slow to develop since Nixon's day and by having only three more years in office to enforce new priorities after five years of an energy policy devoted to increasing production of gas and oil.

Moreover, many said, Bush's financial commitment is far too little to spark the breakthrough that would be necessary to meet his ambitious goals, including reducing imports of Middle Eastern oil by 75 percent over the next two decades by moving ''beyond a petroleum-based economy."

''The budgetary increases are a farce," said Seth Kaplan of the Conservation Law Foundation, a New England-based environmental advocacy group. ''If he really believed [in decreasing dependence on foreign oil], he would not have pushed through an energy bill that was full of giveaways to the petroleum industry, with only marginal support to other forms of energy."

Last night, Bush proposed building more nuclear and coal-powered plants with new technology to reduce air pollution. He also said his 2007 budget would include a 22 percent increase in ''clean energy" research such as solar, wind, gas-electric hybrid car batteries, hydrogen fuel, and ethanol, a form of gasoline that can be made from plants.

But research into coal and hydrogen fuel is part of Bush's existing policy, critics said, while the dollars attached to his new proposals were modest. According to the White House, Bush's 2007 budget will include $65 million in additional solar power research, $59 million more for ethanol, $6.7 million more for hybrid batteries, and $5 million more for wind energy research.

Bush's remarks were notable for what he did not say, some specialists said. He made no mention of increasing passenger car fuel-efficiency standards, which the automobile industry has resisted.

''One would think if you had an addiction, you wouldn't say, 'I'll wait 20 years to do something about it,' " said Dave Hamilton, an energy specialist at the Sierra Club.

For many conservationists who have been critical of Bush's energy policies, the president's speech left them mildly encouraged but bitter at what they saw as wasted time.

''It's all well and good that he's going into ethanol now -- that's fine -- but where was that five years ago?" said Chuck Porcari of the League of Conservation Voters.