ABSTRACT
This was based on campaign statements that indicated the new Administration was more favorably disposed toward renewables than the two previous Republican Administrations. It was also based on a belief that both Clinton and Gore had a deep understanding of the nation’s energy requirements and the need to make progress on developing and using energy efficiency and renewable energy. Both had had extensive interactions in their previous elected positions with the energy programs of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Clinton as Governor of Arkansas and Gore as a Congressman from Tennessee. However, I was not expecting much action in a first Clinton term as there were many issues on the new Administration’s agenda and lots of other “fish to fry” after 12 years of Republican control of the White House. My hopes were more on actions related to energy in a second Clinton term. Of course my hopes were dashed when the President tried to put a price on carbon by raising gasoline prices by five cents a gallon and ran into a political firestorm. Unfortunately, he never tried again. Vice President Gore was also responsible for a serious setback when he insisted that all programs aimed at reducing global warming be so labeled in the FY1996 budget request, which many of us argued against strongly. Our fear was that with the Republicans winning both the House and Senate in the 1994 mid-term Congressional elections (the so-called Gingrich Revolution), such a guide would make it
easy for Republicans to cut clean energy budgets. However, we were unsuccessful in the face of the Vice President’s insistence and the Republicans subsequently used the “guide” to cut the requested OUT renewable energy budget by 25%. This had serious consequences for the NREL, which at that time received 60% of its operating funds from that budget, and the NREL was forced to lay off 200 of its 800 staff. It was a devastating time for renewables, about which I still carry strong feelings. One of those feelings is that we had a President and Vice President who understood energy issues and the need to move toward a renewable energy future. In my opinion they should have taken more steps 20 years ago to put us on that path and they didn’t. I’m still upset.
