Just a coincidence?

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times, May 17, 2001

Bush Proposes Energy Plan Tapping Oil and Gas Reserves

By DAVID E. SANGER

ST. PAUL, Minn., May 17 - President Bush laid out his long-awaited energy
plan today, proposing looser regulations on oil and gas exploration,
conservation-minded efforts like a review of gas mileage standards and a $4
billion tax credit for a new generation of highly fuel efficient cars. And
he urged a reconsideration of a quarter-century ban on the reprocessing of
nuclear fuel.

Mr. Bush further called for "a new harmony between our energy needs and our
environmental concerns" and lamented that "too often, Americans are asked
to take sides."

With a declaration that the energy problems threaten the nation's economy
and security, the Bush plan also ordered a sweeping review of public lands
to determine whether more energy resources can be extracted.

Anticipating the opposition that the proposal is sure to touch off, Mr.
Bush called today for a commitment "to live well and wisely on the earth."

"Environmental interests and energy production are not competing
priorities," the President said, to applause.

As expected, Mr. Bush called for a revived commitment to using nuclear
power. How many Americans, he wondered aloud, know that nuclear power
already supplies one-fifth of the country's electricity "safely and without
air pollution"?

"America in the year 2001 faces the most serious energy shortage since the
oil embargoes of the 1970's," the administration's energy report states.
Without action, projected energy shortfalls in coming years "will
inevitably undermine our economy, our standard of living and our national
security." The proposals are among 105 initiatives outlined in the
administration's energy report. (The report is available online at
www.whitehouse.gov.)

===

NY Times, May 17, 2001

U.S.-British Plan Seeks to Restore Trade With Iraq

By BARBARA CROSSETTE

UNITED NATIONS, May 16 - Britain, backed by the United States, will propose
next week that the United Nations lift the 11-year ban on international
trade with Iraq, British officials said today.

The long-awaited British-American proposal, if adopted by the Security
Council, would prohibit only the sale of a specific list of arms and
weapons-related items to Iraq.

But the plan would require Iraq to let international arms inspections
resume before any sanctions could be lifted, and it would reject Iraqi
demands to return to Baghdad the control over money Iraq earns from oil
sales. That money would still be deposited into a United Nations-supervised
escrow account, to be drawn on for imports. Iraq has already said it would
accept nothing short of an end to the embargo, and it expelled
international inspectors in 1998, so it is likely to reject the plan as
inadequate.

"The measures that we are proposing in effect will mean the end of
sanctions on ordinary civilian imports into Iraq," a British official said
today. "We are trying to agree on more focused controls on Iraq's weapons
and illegal oil exports," he said.

Although the new proposals, representing a fundamental shift in the way the
United Nations will deal with Iraq, were developed jointly, Bush
administration officials appeared reluctant to comment publicly on the
plan, leaving the British alone out front today.


Louis Proyect
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