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Guest Commentary January 24, 2002
Energy Security is American Security
The Honorable John Kerry
Politics... is the art of achieving the possible in the conduct of public affairs. Sometimes that can be done by plucking the so-called low-hanging fruit and sometimes it requires painstaking, creative and bold, hard work in the vineyards. The challenge of delivering America's – indeed the world's – energy security offers both "low hanging fruit" and great challenge – but it requires above all that we end the procrastination, and commit ourselves to get the job done. It requires leadership, vision, and action. ...
[T]hose most heavily invested in the current energy system have set a course for the future which, not surprisingly, champions status quo policies at the expense of new ideas and innovation. What's "energy independence" for America, and his party's leaders happily echo his cry – as if by embracing their lack of vision we'd all be able to sit back, relax, and put our fleet of international oil tankers in drydock.
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Common sense tells us that the policies that made us dependent on foreign oil -– however repackaged in the mantle of patriotism -– will only keep us dependent on foreign oil. America take note: if we enact the entire Bush energy plan we will find ourselves twenty years from now more dependent on foreign oil than we are today. The Administration has not offered an agenda for energy independence. That is false advertising. It has offered an agenda that evades the tough questions -- provided blinders where we need magnifying glasses -- and slogans in the place of genuine leadership.
Nothing is more indicative of old thinking, special interest policy than the attempt by the Administration to falsely sell to the American people a rationale for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Big oil and its allies have lusted over the refuge for two decades. With each attempt they make up new arguments for despoiling a unique and irreplaceable arctic environment for a quantity of petroleum that simply will not reduce the fact of our dependency on high risk foreign oil. ...
The latest claim cleverly suggests that ANWR can become a replacement for oil from Saudi Arabia or Iraq. The quick reaction of everyone is to welcome the image of freedom from buying oil from those linked with terrorism. The problem is that's all it is – an image. First, the refuge would not even reach peak production until 20 years from now. It cannot possibly impact the war we wage today.
More importantly – recognizing that under the Administration's own proposals we will be more dependent on imported oil in 2020 than we are today and that increasing demand for oil will quickly gobble up whatever comes from small U.S. supplies, it is impossible to U.S. produce our way out of dependency and avoid the increasing demand curve. The United States has only 3% of the world's reserves to be matched against the fact that we use 25% of the world's supply. And guess what – Saudi Arabia has 46% of the world's reserves. The solution is not in ANWR – it's in less dependency on oil itself. ...
So America has a choice between two competing visions. The Administration sees a world where our principal effort is to drill our way out of our problem while alternative, renewable fuels and technologies rise or fall on their own at the margins no matter what compelling reasons exist to behave differently. I see a world, where even as we drill because it makes economic sense and we have to, our primary focus shifts to cajoling and exciting a new market place for those alternative and renewable energy sources because there are compelling reasons to do so. ...
Energy security is American security. Our policy must reflect that we live in one world, not four or five separate ones and we need an energy policy of national purpose that confronts the hard realities and sets real priorities based on the needs of all Americans. Obviously we all agree that reducing our dependence on foreign oil, especially oil from the politically toxic Middle East, is a necessity. But the American people want honesty about how you do it, not a false security blanket that promises something undeliverable in the short term and precious little amounting to real progress in the long term. ...
Now, I know there are some who say the government should keep all hands off, and give market forces sole control over our energy future. Well I believe in the market. Nothing is more powerful in driving the decisions of businesspeople, engineers and consumers. But it is utter nonsense to suggest that the government has no role.
During the last century, the coal, oil, gas and nuclear industries benefitted from hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies, tax breaks, land sales and outright government assistance. Most of it was justified. For most of the past century, we did not have a better choice than petroleum to meet the bulk of our energy needs, especially for transportation. But now we need to look ahead and anticipate what is coming around the next bend in the road. Domestic, renewable sources are urgently needed now because they are entirely under our control. No foreign government can embargo them. No terrorist can seize control of them. No cartel can play games with them. No American soldier will have to risk his or her life to protect them. For all those reasons -- to create a better, more secure and cleaner future for our nation -- for real energy security -- I believe even the most rock-ribbed conservative would agree we must take steps that go beyond what market forces do on their own.
There is yet another area in which leaders must put aside politics and build a real consensus. You just plan can't tell Americans you're serious about energy security unless you're willing to tackle transportation, where 70 percent of the oil we purchase is consumed. In fact, we consume far more oil in our cars, SUVs, minivans, and other vehicles alone than any other country does for all of its oil-supplied energy needs. By far, the most significant step we can take toward reducing our dependence on oil is to make our passenger vehicles more efficient. What is more, we've had practice.
During the 1970's, America created the Corporate Average Fuel Economy—or CAFÉ--program to increase auto efficiency. This was the right decision. It worked -- resulting in the manufacture of more efficient, safe, reliable, and high quality cars. It saved oil. And it reduced long-term costs to consumers. I might add that the law was signed by a Republican President from Michigan, named Ford, no less.
Today, because of CAFÉ standards, we save 3 million barrels of oil every day -- three times the peak production of ANWR. Each year, consumers keep more than $20 billion in their pockets instead of paying for fuel, and greenhouse gas emissions are significantly lower. CAFÉ is a genuine and concrete step toward energy independence.
But in recent years, we have slid back. In 1995, Congress froze these standards. As a result, our vehicle fuel efficiency is worse now than it has been in twenty years. We are literally becoming less efficient with each new fleet of cars and trucks using more fuel than the last. ...
The Senate Commerce Committee is now reviewing the need to raise fuel economy standards for cars and SUVs. The question is: how far and how fast can we go? My answer is that we should go as far and fast as we can guided by the legitimate concerns of the domestic automobile industry and the limits on what it is technically and economically feasible. Whatever we do, we should provide adequate lead time so that companies can design and build more efficient vehicles in keeping with their regular production cycles. This is essential to reduce costs and provide time for technological development.
I am determined that Congress should act -- but we have to act intelligently. More than 100 million new cars will be sold in the coming decade. That is the imperative for not waiting. If we work in partnership with the industry, these cars can be as efficient as they can reasonably be made. ...
In addition our nation should make a large-scale commitment to research and development of hydrogen fuel cells, which offer the greatest promise to revolutionize our energy system. The potential is so great and so transforming that all the major energy and auto companies are racing to develop this technology. Fuel cells can power cars, trucks, buses, trains and ships -- and free standing fuel cells can power homes. The challenge is to make fuel cells the most cost effective choice. ...
We should also make our overall transportation system more efficient by reinvesting in public transit and rail. Today, public transportation saves our country 1.5 billion gallons of fuel annually. Cities are expanding rail and bus systems to meet the rising demand. Nearly 1,500 miles of new rail lines are currently in one phase or another of planning or construction. We need to get this rail in place and then go further. Congress should help states and cities to finance backlogged projects, and to rebuild both intra and inter-city systems to curtail U.S. oil dependence, cut traffic congestion and create jobs.
We should promote the use of new renewable biofuels in addition to the corn-based ethanol we already support; both can replace oil. New technologies can refine biofuels from agricultural wastes, from tires and municipal wastes, from coal and from dedicated crops. Pilot projects are underway and commercial scale refineries are planned in several states. One way to jump start this technology is to set a national goal that a percentage of our gas be derived from biomass, and that provision is in our Democratic energy proposal. We are pursuing a day when a barrel of biofuel might trade no differently than a barrel of oil, except for one all-important difference: the money used to purchase that barrel of fuel would flow not outside our nation, but to American farmers, suppliers and refiners.
Let me be clear. In offering these suggestions, I am not proposing that we all drive small. I am not proposing that we mandate the use of public transit. I am not proposing that we somehow reduce our freedom to travel.
I am proposing that we build the cars, SUVs, minivans and trucks we all want to drive, but make them more efficient. That we be given the choice to power our vehicles on natural gas, biomass and fuels other than oil. That we offer Americans the chance many desire to participate in creating a safer, cleaner, more reliable and secure system of rail and public transportation. That we invest now in fuel cells and other technologies that can revolutionize the energy system on which our children and grandchildren will rely.
All that I have suggested to reduce our dependence on oil in transportation is a major part of the energy security challenge our nation faces today, but it is not the only part. We must also focus on how we use and produce electricity in America.
We can and should make our homes and businesses more efficient. I know it's difficult to convey the power of efficiency because the benefits are incremental and – unlike oil drilling, coal mining or building powerplants – improvements in efficiency leave behind no reminders of their presence – until you open your electric bill. But just think: Our national energy bill is $200 billion lower thanks to the efficiency gains of the past three decades. Recent efficiency standards will save enough energy in 2010 alone to light all U.S. homes for two years. And efficiency has been the second largest source of energy over the past two decades, second only to oil. ...
Finally, we must invest in making coal a cleaner fuel. America holds great amounts of coal. It is estimated that at current consumption, America is sitting on 250 year supply. Unlike oil, it cannot be embargoed. I believe that we must invest federal money in researching how that coal can be mined and burned to do the least environmental damage possible. The same can be said for natural gas. We should develop it and use it, and I support the federal government assisting in the development of a pipeline to carry the vast gas reserves of Alaska to the Midwest.
I am convinced these are choices for energy security that most Americans want to make. We have had enough of complacency. Complacency is not a state of nature, and it certainly isn't a state of grace; it is a choice, and we face a fundamental choice in this country. ...
It is said that nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time. The dangers of a business as usual approach to energy security have been revealed to us again and again. There is no question that if we remain complacent one day those dangers will force us to act. We owe it to ourselves and to our children to acknowledge and address them now -- before it's too late, and while we can still maximize the benefits.
A Saudi Arabian oil minister and a founder of OPEC once said, "That the stone age came to an end not for a lack of stones, and the oil age will end, but not for a lack of oil." I don't believe that we are about to run out of oil. But I do believe that the consequences of remaining dependent on oil are too great, too dangerous and wrong for this nation, and that now is time for national action. Rather than have our energy policy be the last big mistake of the 20th century, we can make it the first major opportunity for security of the 21st century.
John Kerry is a U.S. Senator (D-Massachusetts). The above column has been adpated from a speech Sen. Kerry delivered at the Center for National Policy, January 22, 2001, in Washington, D.C. To contact him, Click Here.
The above column has been distributed by PoliticsOL.com.
