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Bush's Pick for Energy Sought to Kill Agency

By Peter Behr and Dina ElBoghdady
Wednesday, January 3, 2001

In 1999, Republican Spencer Abraham of Michigan was one of a handful of senators sponsoring a short-lived proposal to eliminate the Department of Energy.

Now Abraham, who lost his Senate reelection bid in November, is President-elect Bush's choice to run that department in the face of the nation's harshest energy challenges in 20 years.

Bills for natural gas, electricity and heating oil have jumped 50 percent or more over those of a year ago as the coldest winter in years drains depleted fuel stocks. California faces an electricity crisis and on Jan. 17, three days before Bush's inauguration, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is scheduled to consider a cutback in crude oil production that would reverse a recent easing in oil prices, energy analysts say.

All of this will land in the lap of Abraham, 48, a Harvard-educated lawyer, grandson of Lebanese immigrants and one-term senator who had been a top vice-presidential aide to Dan Quayle, assuming he is confirmed by his former Senate colleagues.

It will be a mostly new agenda for Abraham, as he acknowledged yesterday after his nomination by Bush.

"Fortunately, this administration is comprised of many individuals with incredible expertise in these areas," Abraham said, adding: "I look forward to helping the president-elect address these challenges."

Not since the energy shocks that battered the Carter administration has a new president confronted the range of bad news that awaits Bush, said Howard Gruenspecht, a former Energy Department official and now resident scholar at Resources for the Future, a research organization.

And while Abraham is in line to be the administration's point man on these issues, as energy secretary he would have direct control of only a few key policies. The regulation of electricity, access to oil and gas sites on public lands, and environmental rules governing power plants and refineries are in the hands of other departments and agencies, Gruenspecht said.

Nor does Abraham have a background in security issues at the nuclear weapons laboratories run by the Energy Department -- as also was the case with Bill Richardson, the current energy secretary, who was sharply criticized for that alleged failing by Republican House and Senate members who attacked the Clinton administration's management of the labs.

Although Abraham proposed abolishing the Energy Department as a means of reducing federal spending, the Bush transition team said he no longer holds that view because of the energy challenges facing the country.

As a senator representing Michigan, home to the U.S. auto industry, Abraham's priorities began with transportation issues, including successful efforts to block higher fuel-economy standards for sport-utility vehicles and light trucks and a failed attempt this year to suspend the federal gasoline tax in response to the sharp rise in pump prices.

"He understands the energy issues more than people think," said Debbie Dingell, president of the General Motors Foundation, a Democrat and a friend of Abraham's since the age of 15. "When you come from Michigan, you pay attention to these things."

Abraham's advocacy for the auto industry made him a ready target for environmentalists. The League of Conservation gave his Senate voting record a rating of zero.

After his narrow defeat in November by Rep. Deborah Ann Stabenow (D-Mich.), Abraham began appearing on some lists of possible Bush Cabinet appointees, although that speculation centered on the Transportation Department.

The prospect of life outside government did not appeal to Abraham, some Senate sources say. But his selection as energy secretary has baffled many environmentalists, political observers and even some of his closest colleagues.

"I really think the answer is that once the cards were shuffled, that was the only one [Cabinet position] left," said Stuart Rothenberg, a political analyst and editor of the Rothenberg Report, an independent newsletter. "It was one of the slots they had open, and this is a multicultural Cabinet if they ever had one."

As the junior senator from Michigan, Abraham represented one of the largest Arab American populations in the country. Some Arab Americans say his Arab heritage will give him credibility in the Persian Gulf nations whose oil supplies are crucial to the U.S. economy.

Abraham joined with Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska) last year in an unsuccessful bid to open the protected Alaskan coastline of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration.

Bush has put that at the top of his energy policy initiatives, promising an early battle with Democrats over the issue.

"We have vast resources within the United States, and these are crucial to our country's security," Abraham said yesterday at Bush's side. The administration can tap new domestic oil and gas reserves "while meeting our responsibilities as good stewards of the land, the air and the water," he said.

His nomination drew contrary responses yesterday from representatives of the energy industry and environmental groups.

Thomas Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, an association of investor-owned electric companies, praised Abraham's selection, calling him "a leader in the U.S. Senate, a very thoughtful policy person, just who we need to address the difficult energy issues facing the country today."

Dan Becker, a Sierra Club official in Washington, said of Abraham, "The only [energy] fight he's led was the one to guzzle more gas [by opposing increases in auto fuel economy standards], and his voting record has been singularly hostile to the environment."

"He's not an energy expert. I don't think he needs to be," said David M. Nemtzow, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, a nonprofit advocacy group. "You need a good politician who can bring together different points of view" on energy development and conservation, Nemtzow said.

Murkowski, whose committee will consider Abraham's confirmation, endorsed him yesterday.

"The Energy Department is a difficult one to manage, but I have every confidence that Sen. Abraham is up to the job," Murkowski said in a statement.

Swept into the Senate during the "Republican revolution" of 1994, Abraham was praised as an up-and-comer with enough conservative credentials to propel him into Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's "kitchen cabinet."

But in the Senate, he soon proved to be among the most vulnerable Republicans. A freshman in a swing state that had not elected a Republican to the Senate in 20 years, Abraham could never parlay his 1994 win into widespread recognition at home.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company