Issue Page

Why New Energy

Robert Dorst2 — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:51:05 -0500

America’s energy policy is running on empty. Families are strapped by rising gas and heating costs. We’re shipping billions to oil producers abroad. Our security is weakened by deepening dependence on foreign oil. Catastrophic climate change is a real and present danger. Thanks to years of Bush administration denials and obstruction, we are running out of time.

The current energy policy is socking our pocketbooks. Families will spend $2,300 more this year to fill up their cars and $1,700 more for home heating oil than at the beginning of the Bush presidency.

And it’s socking our planet. The warning signs of catastrophic climate change are all around us. Arctic ice is melting at a record pace. Wildfires are burning hotter and longer. The lake that supplies water to Phoenix and Las Vegas is drying up. A record number of Category 5 hurricanes have formed in the Atlantic Ocean this decade. Hunting seasons and wildlife habitats are beginning to be adversely impacted.

But the genius of America is to turn crisis into opportunity. In 1961, President Kennedy challenged us to send a man to the moon within a decade and launched the Apollo plan to make it happen. Now we need a similar vision—an Apollo initiative for energy independence, mobilizing science and technology to build a new energy economy.

With a concerted drive for energy independence, we can put millions of Americans to work generating clean, affordable energy alternatives and maximizing energy efficiency. We can reverse the loss of 3.4 million
manufacturing jobs, the spike in energy costs and eventually the warming of the planet.

There’s no reason to wait, and no time to lose.

The Challenge

Chris Rasmussen — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:51:04 -0500

Turning to domestic oil is not a serious option. Not only will that do nothing to reverse global warming, but the oil simply isn’t there. The United States has less than 2% of the world’s oil reserves and imports 60% of the oil we use. We can’t drill our way out of the hole we’re in.

The reality is: world oil production is at or near its peak. Global demand for oil—up to 86 million barrels a day—has exhausted spare capacity. Increasing demand by China, India and the industrializing world is driving prices ever higher—and spurring an intense scramble for secure sources of supply. There’s nothing in the pipeline to cushion us from unexpected supply shocks caused by natural disasters or global unrest. Our margin of error is gone. And in the long run, there’s not enough oil to go around.

Conservative Failure

Isaiah J. Poole — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:51:03 -0500

The path to a clean energy economy has been blocked by the Bush administration and its conservative allies who scorn the threat posed by global warming and discount the growing economic and security costs of reliance on foreign oil.

Hunters, fishermen and farmers all attest to the startling changes wrought by global warming. After years of denial, President Bush has finally admitted that something is happening, yet his administration continues to cook the books, pressuring government scientists to downplay the data and mislead the public.

In 2006, the public pushed back and installed a new Congress. In 2007 and 2008, congressional leaders tried to change course, proposing to end oil and gas subsidies and invest that revenue into producing renewable energy. With the price of oil breaking $100 a barrel, and ExxonMobil raking in record annual profits of over $40 billion, it made no sense to continue handouts to Big Oil on our dime.

But the new Congress was thwarted by an obstructionist conservative minority, committed to the do-nothing, know-nothing policies of the past. Why buck the people’s will to maintain such an ineffective energy policy? Look no further than campaign contributions. Since 2000, oil interests have funneled 80% of their political giving—more than $80 million—to the Republicans in power.

For too long, conservatives have been subsidizing the disease and starving the cure. We don’t have to continue the failed policies that perpetuate the addiction to oil and put our pocketbooks and planet at risk. We have a choice.

Progressive Solution

Chris Rasmussen — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:51:02 -0500

We need a concerted national initiative to rapidly move us to a new energy economy, creating jobs, strengthening our security and helping resolve the climate crisis.

The Apollo Project for Good Jobs and Energy Independence calls for a public investment of $30 billion a year for 10 years, creating 3 million jobs that pave the way to energy independence. We can raise the revenue by scrapping the giveaways to Big Oil and by making private companies pay for polluting the public sky with greenhouse gases.

Targeted public investment will unleash billions in private capital and mobilize the imaginations of the young to build the next generation of energy-efficient appliances, batteries and advanced automotive technologies.

We can create millions of new jobs in renewable and low-carbon energy production, green building construction and retrofits and the manufacture of new energy-efficient products—good-paying jobs that can’t be easily outsourced. Rather than shipping billions abroad for oil, we’ll profit from taking the lead in the growing markets for green technology. We’ll provide sustainable and affordable fuel options for consumers and businesses. We’ll fortify our economy and our security.

What will the new energy economy look like? Imagine:

New factories and retooled plants producing wind turbines, solar panels and hydrogen fuel cells.
A revived American auto industry leading the world in developing the next generation of clean energy cars such as Flex-Fuel vehicles and hybrids.
Schools, offices and homes retrofitted to become more energy efficient with large savings for business and families.
A 21st-century public infrastructure with mass transit and high-speed rail systems and a modernized electrical grid.

Endorsed by a broad coalition of environmental, labor and business organizations, the Apollo Project provides a solution that resonates with the American “can-do” spirit. We need to get America’s energy policy out of the hands of oil companies and into the hands of the public.