A draft report of the Bush administration’s energy policy was heavily criticized last year by a senior U.S. EPA official for blaming energy shortages on environmental regulations, according to a confidential memo released today by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). In a note to the Energy Task Force, which was chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney, EPA Associate Administrator Thomas Gibson said, “We are very concerned that this [report’s] language is inaccurate and inappropriately implicates environmental programs as a major cause of supply constraints in the United States’ refining capacity. Such a conclusion, in our opinion, is overly simplistic and not supported by the facts.” Waxman released the memo as part of his ongoing effort to force Cheney to release the names of executives who advised the energy task force in the spring. In suspiciously similar wording, both a White House representative and an EPA spokesperson dismissed the memo, calling the energy plan “balanced and comprehensive.”
