STATE'S ACTIVISTS CALL GLOBAL WARMING PLANS HALF-BAKED.

Byline: LISA FRIEDMAN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- California's environmental activists criticized President George W. Bush's global warming proposals Tuesday as lukewarm, half-measures if compared with the state's tough laws reducing the emission of greenhouse gases.

While advocates praised the president for highlighting global warming in his State of the Union address, they said they are skeptical of his plan to increase the supply of alternative fuels to 35 billion gallons and set new fuel economy standards.

Many compared Bush's vow to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 18 percent through 2012 with California's target of reducing emissions 25 percent by 2020.

``As usual, California sets stricter standards and gets there more quickly than Washington,'' said Hal Harvey, environmental program director with the William and Flora Hewitt Foundation in Menlo Park, Calif.

``California is far beyond what this proposal would do,'' added Eli Hopson of the Union of Concerned Scientists. ``California is clearly leading here.''

As part of his plan to wean the U.S. off its dependency on foreign oil, Bush called on Congress to ``diversify America's energy supply.''

His vow to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels by 2017 is about five times the current target of 7.5 billion gallons by 2012.

The administration predicted that that would displace 15 percent of the country's projected annual gasoline use.

The other reductions would come from new fuel economy standards for cars.

That plan, the White House said, would reduce gas consumption by up to 8.5 billion gallons a year in 2017 -- a 5 percent reduction in that year's projected consumption.

``We think this is a very important set of proposals,'' said Paul Bledsoe, spokesman for the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan panel of industry experts in D.C.

``This is the first time a president has proposed fuel standards in 20 years,'' Bledsoe said.

Others, however, poked holes in the president's outline, particularly when compared with legislation that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed earlier this year.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein noted that Bush specifically aims to block Congress from setting the new fuel standards. Legislation that Feinstein recently introduced would raise standards by 10 miles per gallon over 10 years, an amount her staff estimates would reduce carbon emissions by 18 percent.

``The president has had the ability to make changes to fuel efficiency with regard to light trucks for six years and he hasn't made substantial increases. Why should we trust him now?'' she said.

By calling for an increase in alternative fuels -- not simply renewable fuels -- the administration opens the door to beefed-up production of coal to liquid fuel and other fuels that could increase gas emissions, said Roland Hwang, vehicles policy director of the Natural Resources Defense Council in California.

``It's potentially a Trojan horse for highly polluting fossil fuels,'' Hwang said.

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com

Local politicians react

Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, said he felt Bush did a ``great job.''

``I thought it was very serious,'' McKeon said. ``He didn't lay out a whole wish list. He talked about realistic things. It was a tremendous speech. Now we'll see if we can follow through with the challenges he's laid out.''

Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, said he felt Republicans and Democrats alike were keeping their distance from Bush on Tuesday night.

``That infamous center aisle seemed to be wider than I've seen it in my 20 years,'' Gallegly said, referring to the main passageway the president walks down, usually in a crush of people, on his way to the podium.

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, said the actual state of the union is not the one Bush portrayed Tuesday evening.

``The state of the union is not near as good as it ought to be,'' Sherman said. ``Our foreign policy has some problems, our energy policy has some problems, our schools are underfunded, our environmental policies are mistaken.

CAPTION(S):

box

Box:

Local politicians react (see text)