Vice President Al Gore commends the unprecedented successes achievedthrough joint cooperation undertaken by the Energy Policy Committeeover the last four years.

The partnerships forged in the Energy Policy Committee, and the trustthat has been the hallmark of the relationships, have allowed theco-chairs to confront challenging issues and turn them into positiveresults.

Vice President Al Gore notes that through the work of the EnergyPolicy Committee, the United States and Russia, together as partners,have worked to reduce the danger posed by the proliferation of nuclearweapons and materials, improve the safety of existing nuclear reactorsand utilize nuclear technologies and materials for peaceful andproductive purposes. The Vice President acknowledges that the newchallenge facing the Energy Policy Committee is to create a bridgefrom past success to future opportunities. The Vice President notesthe importance of identifying projects which meet the targets ofimproving nuclear security, generating positive economic outputs andpromoting regional development in Russia.

The Committee's achievements since the last session include: thecompletion of a five-year contract to accelerate the amount ofhighly-enriched uranium to be blended down and purchased by the U.S.and reached a new agreement in principle to allow conversion of theplutonium production reactors to an exclusively power producing mode.Additional achievements include: signing a Memorandum of Cooperationon the Fundamental Properties of Matter, signing augmentedtransparency measures under the Highly-Enriched Uranium PurchaseAgreement and the addition of Lytkarino to the program on Materials,Protection, Control and Accounting. The Committee also reported on itsongoing work to improve nuclear reactor safety and dispose of excessweapons-usable nuclear material.

The Vice President urges Prime Minister Chernomyrdin to championthepassage of legislation related to production sharing and energytaxation which are important factors contributing to the success ofoil projects and Russian economic prosperity. The Committeehighlighted the important work being undertaken to bring togetherRussian commercial banks with the ExIm Bank to finance energyefficiency projects. The Vice President congratulates the PrimeMinister for establishing an inter-ministerial commission to examinenatural monopolies. He emphasizes that the recommendations from theCommission's study on the electric power sector are an important firststep in the Russian Government's process of tackling the task of powersector restructuring. The Vice President urges Prime MinisterChernomyrdin to take advantage of the loan opportunity beingconsidered by the World Bank for the Krasnodar power project.