Energy innovation vs. drill and burn

Sen. John Kerry has proposed an innovative and progressive plan to gain energy independence for our country, restore our status as global leader on pressing environmental issues and develop an economy based on technological innovation and the smart use of natural resources. Kerry also recognizes that energy independence and national security are mutually dependent. Unlike President George W. Bush, whose energy plan relies on wasteful government subsidies to outmoded polluting industries, Kerry has worked hard to create a fair marketplace for innovative small businesses that deliver clean and renewable energy options for the future.

Most Americans agree that our dependence on foreign Mideast oil is a national security risk. The current turmoil in Iraq—which has resulted in unremitting sabotage of oil pipelines—continues to disrupt oil supplies, leading to price spikes and economic insecurity at home. Recently, oil prices hit an all-time high of nearly $50 per barrel, sending the stock market into shock and domestic oil prices soaring.

Even if Iraq becomes stable, oil prices will continue to rise due to increased global demand, namely from rapidly industrializing China. If demand continues pushing oil prices up, then our economy could face the threat of stagflation that brought our economy to a halt in the 1970s.

Bush has stated that he favors new alternative energies, such as hydrogen fuel cell technology. Unfortunately, the facts do not fit the appealing yet vacuous sound bites. Along with gutting 30 years of environmental safeguards, this administration has wasted tens of billions in taxpayer dollars on tax cuts and federal subsidies to the oil, nuclear and coal industries. The argument goes that drilling and mining on our public lands will decrease our dependence on foreign oil. The fact is, however, that drilling and mining our limited domestic reserves—most of which are in pristine public lands in the Rockies and Pacific Northwest— will have a negligible impact on energy imports, not to mention that only 20 percent of private leases on public lands are currently exploited. More importantly, an energy policy that flouts conservation and promotes burning more fossil fuels (take the tax break companies receive for gas-guzzling SUVs) is bad for the American public and our environment.

First, the Bush administration’s “drill and burn” energy policy poses an acute threat to our natural environment and the health of the American people. Pollution-related asthma is a severe and growing health problem in our cities, leading to billions of dollars annually in health care costs. By pushing to build a new power plant every week for 20 years, while also gutting the Clean Air Act his father signed so that smog-producing coal-fired power plants can bypass federal standards, Bush is not protecting the American people.

Second, lavish subsidies to three industries that are losing money in the free marketplace is bad economics. How can a president who claims to champion the free market over “tax and spend” policies so willingly and blatantly use taxpayer dollars to finance industries that harm the American people? Never mind the billions in “taxes” accrued by the public due to polluted water (since the administration’s January 2003 directive to government agencies NOT to enforce the Clean Water Act), polluted air and contaminated land. Further, extractive industries have lost jobs for more than a decade, due largely to new, more damaging automated equipment that has replaced labor.

Finally, this administration has continued to stonewall and dismiss the unanimous international outcry over global warming. Instead of setting the standard for technological innovation to reduce our country’s carbon dioxide emissions, President Bush has endangered future generations’ well-being while incurring the wrath of most of the world. A country that once set the standard for progressive environmental reform in the 1970s, has since ceded that reputation to Europe.

Kerry’s energy plan will lead the nation to energy independence, fulfill the government’s responsibility to ensure the well-being of its citizens and help secure the homeland. Instead of creating a policy based on paychecks to big campaign contributors, John Kerry supports the Apollo project, which is a broad coalition of labor, environmental, business, urban and faith community leaders in support of good jobs and energy independence. Instead of surrendering to the defeatist notion that environmental preservation and economic growth are incompatible, the Apollo project promotes incentives for industries to develop cleaner and more efficient manufacturing techniques that will create new high-tech jobs.