CA reacts to energy plan.

Consumer Alert reacted to the White House's National Energy Policy, released May 17, with a mix of applause and caution. Consumers can only benefit from expanded energy supplies and their attendant lower prices after a decade of energy-suppression policies. But mandatory conservation measures in the plan could harm consumers with higher prices.

"After years of anti-energy policies, it's good to see a serious effort to open up the marketplace and allow consumers the opportunity to buy abundant, affordable energy," said Executive Director Frances Smith. "New technologies allow for cleaner and safer oil and gas exploration over greater areas with greater yields -- and there's no reason why consumers shouldn't benefit from that."

Consumer Alert also applauded the Administration's continued resistance to price controls on electricity, which create shortages (like rolling blackouts) and discourage investment in new power generation, exacerbating the problem over the long term.

On gas prices, consumers should benefit from an overhaul of "boutique" gasolines -- the 15 or so different blends of gasoline mandated around the country, which Balkanize gas markets and drive up prices when bottlenecks occur. Streamlining the licensing and regulatory process for refineries, which turn oil into gasoline, should also help consumer prices.

However, CA cautioned that the report's forced conservation measures will come at the expense of consumers, especially those who can least afford it "There's nothing inherently wrong with making a personal choice to conserve," said Policy Analyst James Plummer. "Consumers are best able to decide where and how they want to cut back on energy use. But in calling for further regulations on appliances, we could see a repeat of the clothes washer fiasco."

The Energy Policy also calls for continuing the appliance standard program and expanding it to other, unnamed appliances. That would continue the trend of denying consumer choice and raising prices at the whim of bureaucrats and lobbyists. A possible hike in automobile fuel-economy standards would have a similar effect on consumers, who should be free to balance individual values such as price, efficiency, and safety.

Despite these misgivings, Consumer Alert applauds the recommendations as a serious effort to let the market deliver more power to consumers through increased exploration and transmission capacity. Expansion of nuclear energy opportunities, such as plant construction and waste reprocessing, should have similar beneficial effects. These efforts will, hopefully, be enough to overcome continuing market-distorting subsidies given to other -- politically popular, if not economically feasible -- forms of power generation, and hence bring lower prices to consumers.