WATCHING WASHINGTON A SHAKY START FOR BILL CLINTON
Like any new administration, the Clinton team is off to a fitful start.
Oddly enough, so far almost all of the bloopers have come from the political pros at the White House, not from new cabinet or subcabinet level appointees.
Presently, Treasury Sec. Lloyd Bentsen is the only cabinet member whose reputation is at risk. It's riding on the fate of Clinton's proposed BTU tax.
While a Texas senator, Bentsen was a steady opponent of oil industry taxation. But now that the administration is pushing a BTU tax-one that taxes petroleum at a double rate-lobbyists wonder just what Bentsen has been telling the White House and how much it's been listening.
A PUSH IN THE HOUSE
Although many insiders bet the Senate will replace the BTU tax with a gasoline tax increase, the administration has taken the risky approach of pushing for a narrow victory on the BTU tax in the House of Representatives and worrying about the Senate later.
That roll of the dice sounds more like Clinton than Bentsen. And if it comes up snake eyes, Bentsen will shoulder most of the blame as a former finance committee chairman who should have known better.
Over at the Interior Department, Sec. Bruce Babbitt seems firmly in control of his department. Oil lobbyists are concerned that many of his lieutenants have a clear environmental bias and that he has scarcely discussed oil, gas, or offshore drilling.
Babbitt's major initiative has been a policy that will seek long term protection of ecosystems.
At the Environmental Protection Agency, Administrator Carol Browner hopes Congress soon will pass legislation making her agency a cabinet level department.
Browner says, "Environmental protection policies can be harmonious with economic growth, as opposed to the old vision that the environment and the economy were always a tradeoff."
Her main change is remolding EPA's focus toward preventing pollution, not just reacting to it with regulations.
"Twenty years of end-of-pipe regulation have taught us an important lesson," she says. "The best way to clean up the environment is to prevent environmental deterioration in the first place."
DOE'S MAIN THRUST
The main chore at the Department of Energy is to downscale the atomic weapons complex and begin cleaning up 40 years worth of nuclear refuse.
As a sop to the oil industry, Energy Sec. Hazel O'Leary has announced she will develop a strategy within 90 days to increase U.S. production.
That sounds good, but so far O'Leary's speeches have been all "happy talk" and no substance.
Copyright 1993 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.