Energy Security, Energy Urgency: Key Issues Facing the Next President

Transcript

SENATOR LUGAR: One can point with appreciation to some positive trends and initiatives. For example, the Energy Bill passed last week by the Senate included a substantial increase in the renewable fuels standard. It took Senators Daschle, Harkin and me five years to pass an RFS that was less than a quarter of the 36 billion gallons now agreed upon but compared to our acute energy vulnerability, progress in most areas of energy policy has been insufficient.

If we have to endure an oil embargo, if terrorists succeed in disrupting our oil lifeline, if we slide into a military conflict because oil wealth has emboldened anti-American regimes or if eventual scarcity of oil sends prices to unfathomable heights, it will not matter that before disaster struck, the American public and its leaders gained a new sense of realism about our vulnerability. It will not matter that we were producing, marginally, more ethanol than before or that consumers are more willing to consider hybrids and other alternative vehicles.

Achieving a positive trend is almost inevitable as long as energy costs remain high because these costs will lead to some improvements in investment and conservation. We need to have the discipline to understand that a modestly positive trend line is not enough.

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