A Fax From Al Gore

Nobody's neutral on renewable energy, especially the vice president.

I've been getting an earful from readers during the last month, ever since we published the piece by Shimon Awerbuch on how renewable energy can dampen the risk of fluctuating fuel costs, just like treasury bills can cut risk for a stock market investor. (See "Getting It Right: The Cost Impacts of a Renewables Portfolio Standard," Feb. 15, p. 44.)

One note came from consultant Glenn R. Schleede, president of Energy Market & Policy Analysis Inc. of Reston, Va. Schleede sent me a copy of a memo he had prepared for clients and colleagues, in which he described any national portfolio standard for renewable energy as a "backdoor Btu tax." He wrote that many in the "traditional" energy industries still "relish the recollection" of the "stinging defeat" in 1993 of the "hated" Clinton-Gore "Btu Tax," and suggested that the administration's proposed federal bill for electricity restructuring would only repeat that mistake by attempting to mandate the use of renewables.