David Doniger, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, and a former official in the Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton administration, takes a similar view. To say there's an overall energy crisis, that's hype. For one thing, even though OPEC prices have gone up in recent years, the United States is not as dependent on the Middle East as a source of imported oil as it was then. Oil has been replaced as a source of electric power and is used less in manufacturing than it was in the past. Currently, about 50 percent of electric power plants are fired using coal, with about 30 percent using natural gas and 20 percent relying on nuclear power.
Analysts also say the current shortages in supply are cyclical in nature.
A glut of oil production lowered prices in the late 1990s. The United States has certainly not insulated itself from further disruptions to its energy supply, both the White House and its critics agree . The growth of our energy usage over the next 20 years can be moderated, but it cannot be reversed. And that means we're going to have to have more supply to meet that increasing demand. But Doniger disagrees, saying the Clinton administration provided effective incentives for companies to manufacture environmentally-friendly appliances, among other products.