President Bush's energy plan is a starting point for a national debate on how to craft a practical blueprint for meeting the nation's current and long-term energy needs. Unfortunately, the task force plan is lacking in several respects and needs considerable work to make it deliver what American consumers want and need: reliable and affordable energy.

The plan fails to address our short-term energy problem and relies heavily on increasing production of fossil fuels to solve long-term problems. It offers no solutions to alleviate the chronic problems of high energy prices in Hawaii.

The President's plan relies on the domestic production of oil and gas at the expense of wise environmental protections. Current clear air, clean water, and conservation policies were developed after a great deal of research and debate, and they reflect priorities shared by most Americans. While I welcome proposals aimed at increasing our energy supplies, we must continue to safeguard the environment.

In the past few months, we have had record-breaking increases in the price of gasoline and natural gas. The gasoline price increases that we have already seen this spring indicate that the pocketbooks of Americans will be severely affected this summer and beyond. President Bush's energy plan fails to address this immediate problem.

Our nation has made great progress in improving our energy efficiency and conservation since the oil embargo of 1973, and we need to accelerate that commitment. Twenty-five years ago, American vehicles were averaging only 12 miles per gallon. Today's new cars average more than twice this gas mileage in spite of our failure to maintain efficiency standards. Our home appliances require about a third of the electricity they did 30 years ago. This progress is the result of a long-term commitment to improve the efficiency of technologies that we depend upon. President Bush's recommendations to build on this success are timid and disappointing.

America needs to invest more in the development of renewable energy resources such as wind and solar energy and alternative energy resources like hydrogen. The Bush energy plan makes investment in the development of these resources contingent upon royalties from the production of oil from controversial Arctic drilling. We cannot afford to jeopardize the future of renewable energy by gambling on prospective royalties. I am committed to the development of policies that encourage energy efficiency and conservation, allow the development of renewable and alternative energy resources, ensure that Americans have adequate supplies of reasonably priced energy, renew and expand our energy infrastructure, and facilitate the development of new, efficient technologies.

As we work to address our nation's energy needs, we should not overlook the buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases forcing climate change. Global climate change is one of the paramount challenges we face in the 21st Century. We cannot afford to ignore this global problem and its dire long-term consequences.