Energy

             What happened?    Eight years ago, the nation was energy confident.  Our standing in the Middle East was at its zenith.  The oil cartel was in retreat; gasoline was affordable, even as automotive progress reduced emissions from cars.  Today, gas prices have skyrocketed, and oil imports are at all-time highs. Foreign oil now accounts for one-third of our total trade deficit.  Meanwhile, domestic oil production has fallen 17 percent over the last eight years, as vast areas of the continental U.S. have been put off limits to energy leasing — though we depend on oil and natural gas for 65 percent of our energy supply.  Additional oil reserves and deposits of low-sulfur coal may be out of reach because of unilateral designation of new national monuments.

            By any reasonable standard, the Department of Energy has utterly failed in its mission to safeguard America’s energy security.  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been no better, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been shutting off America’s energy pipeline with a regulatory blitz that has only just begun.  In fact, 36 oil refineries have closed in just the last eight years, while not a single new refinery has been built in this country in the last quarter-century.  EPA’s patchwork of regulations has driven fuel prices higher in some areas than in others and has made energy supplies no longer fungible.  What meets EPA’s standards in one city may not be legally sold in another.  The result has been localized shortages and sharp price spikes, as suppliers scramble to get acceptable fuels to the markets where they are needed.

            Environmental concerns are not at the heart of the matter.  In fact, the current administration has turned its back on the two sources that produce virtually all of the nation’s emission-free power: nuclear and hydro, the sources for 30 percent of the country’s electricity.  Because of cumbersome federal relicensing of hydro and nuclear operations, we face the prospect of increasing emissions and dirtier air.  Meanwhile, nuclear plants are choking on waste because the current administration breached its contract to remove it — and then vetoed bipartisan legislation to store it at a safe, permanent repository for which the taxpayers have already paid $7 billion.  At the same time, power-producing dams are being torn down, by federal edict, in energy-short areas, and the Pacific Northwest is their next target.  Breaching dams would not only raise electric rates but would deny western farmers irreplaceable water for irrigation and a cost-effective means of moving their crops to West Coast ports.  We should develop and use technologies that will help entrance salmon runs while keeping the dams in place. 

            It’s a man-made nightmare, but at last the public is waking up and demanding change.  What is at stake, after all, is not just the price we pay to heat and cool our homes.  What is at stake is the nation’s New Economy, which relies heavily on electricity for its infrastructure and on petroleum for its trade.  Affordable energy, the result of Republican policies in the 1980s, helped create the New Economy.  If we do not carefully plan for our energy needs, the entire economy could be significantly weakened.  The Republican Congress has moved to deregulate the electricity industry and empower consumers through a competitive market — but congressional Democrats are holding up the process, and the administration has provided no leadership.  America needs a national energy strategy — and a Republican president will work with congressional Republicans to enact their National Energy Security Act.  That strategy will:

• Increase domestic supplies of coal, oil, and natural gas.   Our country does have ample energy resources waiting to be developed, and there is simply no substitute for an increase in their domestic production.

• Improve federal oil and gas lease permit processing and management, including coalbed methane.
  

• Provide tax incentives for production.
  

• Promote environmentally responsible exploration and development of oil and gas reserves on federally-owned land, including the Coastal Plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
  

• Offer a degree of price certainty to keep small domestic stripper producers in operation.
  

• Advance clean coal technology.
  

• Expand the tax credit for renewable energy sources to include wind and open-loop biomass facilities, and electricity produced from steel cogeneration.
  

• Maintain the ethanol tax credit.
  

• Provide a tax incentive for residential use of solar power.

            This agenda will reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, help consumers by lowering energy prices, and result in lower carbon emissions than would result from the current administration’s policies. To protect consumers against seasonal price spikes, that legislation also authorizes a home heating oil reserve for the Northeastern States and allows expensing of costs for its storage.  It will also make low-income housing more energy-efficient.  All in all, it is a dramatic reversal of the nation’s present course, and that’s just what America needs: a balanced portfolio of energy options that is stable, secure, and affordable, with minimal impact on the environment.

ACHIEVING ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

John Kerry, John Edwards and the Democratic Party believe a strong America must no longer rely on the cooperation of regimes that do not share our values. We believe a strong America must move toward energy independence.

In the Bush Administration, energy independence doesn't get a thought. Their energy policy is simple: government by big oil, of big oil, and for big oil. This Administration let oil industry lobbyists and executives write our nation's energy policy in secret. They even went to the Supreme Court to stop the public from learning what they were doing. They've done nothing as gas prices have soared to record levels. Even the Administration's own economists have found that their energy plan will do nothing to reduce gas prices. This President's approach to energy policy leaves America shackled to foreign oil, dependent, vulnerable, and exposed.

John Kerry, John Edwards and the Democratic Party believe in a better, stronger, more independent America. We are committed to achieving energy independence, and we know we can do it. Our ingenuity and determination built the cars we drive and the bridges we use. It electrified rural America in the 1930s, and took us to the moon in the 1960s. Our resolve helped conquer polio.

It's this simple: When we see a problem, we roll up our sleeves and solve it. And that's what we pledge to do now.

Achieving energy independence will improve our ability to protect our values and interests in the world. It will reduce energy costs for our families. It will create high-paying new jobs. And it will improve our environment and make our people healthier.

Harnessing American ingenuity to create renewable energy. Our plan begins with commonsense investments to harness the natural world around us—the sun, wind, water, geothermal and biomass sources, and a rich array of crops—to create a new generation of affordable energy for the 21st century. By mobilizing the amazing productivity of America's farmers, we can grow our own cleaner-burning fuel. We support tax credits for private sector investment in clean, renewable sources of energy, and we will make ethanol credits work better for farmers. And we will ensure that billions of gallons of renewable fuel are part of America's energy supply while striving for strong, national renewable energy goals.

Creating the energy-efficient vehicles of tomorrow. We support creating more energy-efficient vehicles, from today's hybrid cars to tomorrow's hydrogen cars. We support the American people's freedom to choose whatever cars, SUVs, minivans, and trucks they choose, but we also believe American ingenuity is equal to the task of improving efficiency. We support improving fuel standards, and because of the challenges this poses, we will offer needed incentives for consumers to buy efficient vehicles, and for manufacturers to build them. We are also committed to developing hydrogen as a clean, reliable domestic source of energy. Our economy cannot convert to hydrogen overnight, so we will fund research to overcome the obstacles to hydrogen fuel and continue our other efforts to achieve energy independence.

Moving beyond OPEC. We can improve our energy security in other ways. We will seek more diverse sources of oil around the world and here at home. We support balanced development of domestic oil supplies in areas already open for exploration, like the western and central Gulf of Mexico. We support the expansion of new infrastructure to develop supplies from non-OPEC nations like Russia, Canada, and nations in Africa. We will increase efficiency of natural gas use, develop the Alaska natural gas pipeline, and enhance our nation's infrastructure to help supply natural gas more effectively.

Electricity. We will work to create new technology for producing electricity in a better, more efficient manner. Coal accounts for more than one-half of America's electric power generation capacity today. We believe coal must continue its important role in a new energy economy, while achieving high environmental standards. Working with the coal industry, we will invest billions to develop and implement new, cleaner coal technology and to produce electric and hydrogen power. We will also work to make sure that our people have access to an affordable, secure, and reliable supply of electricity at all times. We support mandatory, enforceable reliability standards. We also support public-private partnerships to make our power systems more flexible, resilient, and self-healing—and more environmentally friendly than ever before.

Government as a role model. The federal government is the largest single consumer of energy in the world. We will cut the federal government's energy use and challenge local governments, corporations, universities, small businesses and hospitals to do the same.

Our commitment to conservation. A balanced energy policy must create real incentives for energy conservation in our homes, our offices, our factories, and our infrastructure, saving money and improving security even as it creates good jobs and rebuilds our communities.

With sixty-five percent of the world's oil reserves in the Middle East, we cannot drill our way to energy independence. But we can create, think, imagine, and invent our way there. And we will create jobs, help our environment, and build a stronger country as we do.

Energy