Don't Conserve by Mary McGrory Vice President Dick Cheney's energy speech last week fell on green ears with the harshness of a brusque directive from the supreme command of the Sopranos. Real men drill. Real men dig coal.
Real men go nuclear.
America's coal-burning power plants are Canada's acid rain. Oil men like President Bush and Cheney simply do not understand why so many people are uptight about the outdoors, with no consideration for the boardroom or the bottom line. Bush threw a few bones to the environmentalists, and serious planet-preservers like New York Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, a leading Republican moderate, began to breathe easier. The Cheney energy speech put an end to all that happy talk, although the president sent a few paragraphs to his Second Thoughts Shop. Once the president's men got that great rush of gushy 100-Days reviews about decisiveness and crisp management style, it was perhaps inevitable that they would do a little stumbling around.