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| A Balanced Energy Plan |
June 27, 2001 |
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The energy crunch is hurting everyone. Gas prices are high this summer and electric bills are putting a big dent in family budgets. It’s especially difficult for New Mexicans on fixed incomes.
We need a balanced, long-term plan to meet our energy needs. Our plan should include conservation, increased supply, improvements to infrastructure, and government reform.
Any plan we develop to meet America’s energy needs must preserve and protect the beauty of the home we love. We’ve made tremendous progress in the last twenty years cleaning up the air, water and land and there’s no turning back. No one wants to.
We need a balanced, long-term plan to meet our energy needs.
The good news is we can have a safer, cleaner, healthier environment and meet the growing energy needs of our prosperous nation.
Conservation must be a pillar of our energy strategy. Conservation allows us to use less energy to produce the goods and live our lives the way we want to. Refrigerators today use 1/3rd less electricity than a refrigerator built in 1972. Cars get more miles to the gallon and new research in hybrid vehicles may double gas mileage without compromising power or range.
Renewable fuels like ethanol made from corn, co-generation of electricity and heat, advances in technology made possible by cutting edge energy research will bring us the next generation of clean, efficient power.
Any plan we develop to meet America’s energy needs must preserve and protect the beauty of the home we love.
But conservation alone will not save enough energy to power our growing economy and rising standard of living. We need to increase and diversify our supply of energy.
We are more dependent on foreign oil today than we were at the height of the energy crisis. 55% of our oil is imported, mostly from the Middle East. We must reduce our reliance on single foreign sources of supply by developing resources at home and in other areas of the world, including the former Soviet Union and Latin America.
Coal generates a little over 50% of our electricity and nuclear power is about 20%. But the only plants now on the drawing boards are natural gas. The demand for natural gas will rise sharply over the next 20 years and we may not have enough domestic supply to meet the demand. We need to invest in clean coal technology so that we can use our abundant coal resources without damaging the environment.
Nuclear energy must also be part of our energy plan. Nuclear power is safer and cleaner than other kinds of electricity generation and helps us to stay independent of foreign countries for our energy. The next generation of nuclear power plants will be even safer and less expensive to build. These new designs have the potential to revitalize the nuclear industry.
Conservation and increasing supply are important, but we also have to strengthen our energy infrastructure.
We have not built a refinery in 20 years. A fire or a plant shut down causes shortages of gasoline that drives the prices up. California not only failed to build enough power plants, they did not build the transmission lines to get the electricity to the people who need it. And, in an age of sophisticated remote sensing, many of our pipelines are still inspected by people “walking the line” looking for discoloration of the soil.
We must modernize and expand the nation’s energy infrastructure, including safe pipelines, adequate transmission and refining capacity, and enough redundancy to reduce the consequences of single point failures.
And finally, we must streamline government if we are to prevent future energy problems.
The Environmental Protection Agency, or the State Department, or Transportation or Agriculture or Interior can each make major policy decisions that affect our country’s energy supply based solely on their department’s view of the world. They don’t have to take into account what happens to the price we pay for gasoline in Belen, or how much it costs to heat our homes in Northern New Mexico during the winter. And, generally, they don’t.
We must integrate federal policy when it comes to energy.
America’s national security policy making was integrated in 1948, and, for the most part, it works. It’s far past time to do the same for America’s energy security.
Our goal in the House is to pass comprehensive, long-term energy legislation by August that emphasizes conservation, increasing supply, building infrastructure, and streamlining government.
America should have the most advanced energy system in the world and now is the time to act.
If we don’t act we need look no further than California to see our future. Rolling black-outs, $2.00 a gallon or more for gas, continued reliance on foreign dictators and soaring electricity prices.
I believe we can do better than that. I’ll work on the balance, long term approach that New Mexicans deserve. |
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