With gasoline prices at an all time high and the President’s commitment to devote more resources to develop alternative energy, we now have the opportunity, if not a mandate, to end America’s reliance on foreign oil and grow our economy.

The average American cannot afford to commute to work or get groceries paying almost $3 per gallon for gasoline. Seasonal fluctuations in gas and energy prices do occur, but we do not need to be held hostage to them. We can be energy independent and free ourselves of the turbulence and sharp peaks in the oil market if we concentrate our resources on perfecting “Entech” - alternative and renewable energy technologies - and maximizing our own individual conservation efforts.

The oil embargo of 1973 caused energy prices to quadruple. The major economic shock that followed led to the establishment of a comprehensive federal energy program and investments in renewable energy technologies to find solutions to the nation’s immediate and long-term energy needs. But, Americans, and that includes Congress, tend to have short memories. So when the oil cartel failed in the early 1980s and low gas prices returned, investment in renewable energy research declined.

But, as the market fluctuated in the late 1990s and oil prices began to rise, it became clear that strong action was needed by Congress to increase investment in research and development for renewable and alternative energy sources. Taking a lead role in this effort, I wrote H.R.3263, the Energy Efficiency Cornerstone Act with Congressmen Ralph Hall of Texas and Mark Udall of Colorado. Among other things, the bill would direct the federal government to promote the purchase of energy-efficient products and buildings and provides tax incentives for the construction of new energy efficient homes, for energy efficiency improvements to existing homes and for installing energy efficient appliances. 

When Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, I strongly supported a comprehensive solution to energy reform which includes tax credits for the use and development of renewable fuels and funding for programs to expand the use of clean, safe nuclear energy.

In March, as co-chairmen of the 217-member Renewable Energy and Efficiency Caucus, Congressman Mark Udall and I convened the caucus’s first working breakfast to bring policy-makers together with renewable and alternative fuel companies and entrepreneurs. What came out of that meeting were concerns that the tax incentives contained in the Energy Policy Act will soon expire. These incentives have allowed them to begin to develop workable forms of wind, solar and hydrogen energy but the tax incentives will expire before these energy sources can be brought to the consumer market.

The current partnership between the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the Silicon Valley to develop a solid-oxide stationary fuel cell is a partnership I fought hard to bring together. The fuel cell, now being demonstrated in the Tennessee Valley, can run on natural gas, ethanol or any number of other fuels and produces enough electricity – 5 kilowatts – to power a single family home. The fuel cell’s pollution-free hydrogen emissions could even be captured and stored to be used to power a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. Imagine that; one unit to power your house and produce fuel for your car while you sleep without any public power transmission lines.

Though these technologies are still years away from commercial production, there is a huge economic benefit to ensuring they become available to consumers around the world. We balanced the budget in the last decade because of information “E-technology.” We can balance the budget in the next 10 years by growing the energy technology sector and exporting these

solutions to the world and the Administration recognizes this.

In his budget for Fiscal Year 2007, President Bush asked Congress for $359.2 million for the Department of Energy’s Renewable Energy Program – 30 percent higher than last year’s funding – for the development of technologies such as solar energy, biomass fuels and small hydro-power projects. The President is also rightly pushing energy efficiency by asking for $484.7 billion for research and development in that area, a boost of 4.5 percent over the 2006-funding which includes large increases for hydrogen and fuel cell technology.

To immediately address the spike in gasoline prices at the pump, the President recently announced he is sending more supply to consumers by ordering a suspension of shipments of oil to the strategic oil reserve, which is the government's emergency supply in the event of a crisis. He also ordered three federal agencies to investigate whether oil companies are manipulating the cost of gasoline and asked state governments to also conduct their own investigations. 

Another problem causing high gasoline prices right now is that our policies promote the proliferation of fuels with various blends – known as “boutique” fuels – which are incompatible with each other. Because of the different standards applied to different regions of the country under the Clean Air Act, there are currently 17 different types of these gasoline blends being sold around the country. These non-uniform mandates for “boutique” fuels periodically result in regional price spikes when a region-specific fuel is in short supply due, for example, to an unexpected surge in demand or an unscheduled shutdown of a refinery or a pipeline.

The Energy Policy Act would fix this problem by amending the Clean Air Act to allow the EPA to relax these standards to address spikes in fuel prices and allow a more uniform distribution of available fuels, rather than mandating one kind of “boutique” fuel in one area but not another.

Supporting greater use ethanol – which is often used to blend with gasoline – is also a policy that will benefit our economy and our air quality. Ethanol is cleaner burning and promoting its usage also benefits our struggling agriculture industry. That is why I recently signed on as cosponsor of legislation that would temporarily suspend the tax on ethanol.

But to achieve total energy independence, we must do our part as individuals. From purchasing energy efficient products such as special light bulbs to taking better care of your home to conserving water and using technologies that make more efficient use of our energy resources, Americans need to step up to the plate. More energy has been produced, effectively, by energy conservation since the early 1970s than any other single energy source. That’s how important energy conservation is.

The market place is ready. Energy prices are too high. The President of the United States has declared an “addiction to oil.” Now is the time for action at home, in business and from the government at every level.