Reducing Our Reliance Upon Forei

The need to reduce our reliance on foreign oil has been expressed by every president since Richard Nixon. President Obama has taken a pragmatic view in answering this challenge. He has not promised "energy independence" - rather, he has challenged us to eliminate oil imports from the Middle East and Venezuela in the next 10 years. This is an attainable goal.

The United States currently imports approximately 70 percent of its oil, a fact that makes us beholden to foreign governments who could influence our domestic and foreign policy with the simple turn of a wheel at the end of a pipelines 6,000 miles away. In this process, we also export tremendous domestic wealth - the U.S. spent $475 billion on foreign oil in 2008 alone.

OPEC declared earlier this year that the world price of oil should be $75 per barrel. OPEC countries produce about 46 percent of the world's crude oil and about 60 percent of the crude oil traded internationally, so the price we pay for foreign oil is likely to be about what OPEC wants it to be.

In 1973, the U.S. imported only about one third of our oil needs, but anyone who lived through the OPEC oil embargo during that time remembers the economic, societal, and foreign policy disruptions. Now, in an era when we depend on foreign sources for approximately 70 percent of our oil, the potential dangers of even a brief disruption are obvious.

Transportation is where we must look for an immediate impact to reduce our nation's dependence upon foreign oil.

Placing an emphasis on reducing the imported oil used as diesel fuel to move the more than six million heavy--trucks in the U.S. today is the first step and would have an immediate affect. Fleet vehicles public and private--can also add to the this significant and immediate reduction. As cars and trucks are still one of the biggest sources of oil pollution, using cleaner fuels can have additional important and tangible benefits to environmentally quality as well.

Every domestic source can and should contribute to this effort. Our nation's law and policy makers must play a central role in developing and implementing key policies, including:

Increase investment in fuels that are domestically abundant, economical, and clean and expand their use to power passenger cars, as well as light and heavy-duty trucks.
Provide strong incentives to rapidly build the infrastructure to leverage the abundance and potential of clean and domestic liquid fuel resources like natural gas and advanced biofuels.
Develop an advanced and "smart" electrical grid that can help accelerate wider adoption of electrical cars, and promote investment in smart charging infrastructure.
Work with manufacturers to increase deployment of clean energy vehicles, from accelerating production of plug-in electric hybrid cards, to advanced battery manufacturing, to increasing adoption of natural gas and advanced bio-fuels in the long haul trucking fleet.
Encourage trucking companies to refresh their diesel-powered fleets with trucks that burn clean and efficient domestic fuels, and ensure that federal government and other public, private and municipal fleet vehicles use domestic and clean fuels or electricity.

Immediate and expanded use of clean and domestic energy can provide a bridge to the next generation of non-fossil transportation fuel technology and accelerate innovation to move goods and people Using existing technology, America can begin today to reduce dependence on oil.

Clean Energy

-United States Senator Harry Reid of Nevada

Right now, America is at a critical crossroads. From the headlines and what is occurring in communities across the nation, our economy is struggling, and we need to move faster to seize the growth opportunity of the 21st century - clean energy. We have made some notable progress toward that goal in recent months and years, but our stability and long-term security is threatened by our addiction to oil and the inefficient use of fossil fuels. We must urgently build national momentum to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and standards that will save consumers money and create millions of new jobs, including thousands in Nevada, while addressing our critical security challenges.

There are two options before us. One path takes us toward a cleaner, more affordable and safer future with sustainable economic growth and unlimited opportunity by focusing on clean energy. The other path is the status quo, which makes us more dependent on dirty and inefficient use of fossil fuels and other dangerous and increasingly expensive energy sources. The second path further harms our economy, makes us less competitive, increases the risks of global warming, and does little to preserve a more secure life for future generations.

Supporting Renewable Energy and Efficiency Across Nevada

Since 2000, Senator Reid has secured well over $100 million for Nevada-based projects to research and advance our nation's renewable energy and energy efficiency capabilities. Additionally, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provided over $100 million for energy efficiency, renewables and weatherization projects in Nevada. Nevada's institutions of higher education, schools, counties and others are working to make Nevada the nation's renewable energy leader.

Providing Funding and Incentives for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency

For many years, Senator Reid has pursued consistent federal incentives to develop clean renewable energy resources. In ARRA, Congress improved and extended the 30% investment tax credits for commercial and residential solar energy and extended the geothermal thermal energy production tax credit through 2013. We also funded $4 billion in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds and Energy Conservation Bonds, boosted the tax credit for energy efficient home appliances and improvements, and created a tax credit for purchasing new plug-in vehicles.

Delivering Renewable Energy to the Grid

Much of Nevada's best solar, wind, and geothermal resources are in remote areas, and do not have access to transmission lines. Senator Reid introduced legislation (the Clean Renewable Energy and Economic Development Act, S.539) to facilitate sitting and planning for green transmission, allow broader allocation of transmission costs, and provide additional financing opportunities for building transmission to areas with abundant renewable resources. As a start toward a national smart grid, ARRA provided the Western Area Power Administration with $3.25 billion to finance or build new transmission capacity to facilitate renewable energy development.

Developing Renewable Energy on Public Lands

In June, Senator Reid joined Interior Secretary Salazar to announce the designation of 24 tracts of public lands in 6 western states as solar energy study areas. These study areas will allow for expedited review, coordinated environmental studies, and send a clear signal of the government's commitment to developing renewable energy. They are working to make these projects work for Nevadans by introducing legislation with Senator John Ensign (the Renewable Energy Permitting Act, S.995) to provide counties and states with a greater share of revenues collected from renewable energy projects that use public lands.

National Clean Energy Summit
Submitted by EricLykins on Thu, 2009/02/26 - 8:18am.
A report on the recent National Clean Energy Summit, with video and summary of remarks by speakers...

The conference doesn't begin until about 4:50 into the video. skip ahead

WHAT: The forum will focus on modernizing and expanding the electricity grid, integrating energy efficiency and distributed generation into operation and regulation, rapidly increasing transmission capacity for renewable energy and reducing our nation’s dependence on foreign oil by examining short- and long-term solutions to replace foreign oil with domestic resources to fuel vehicles and trucks, including natural gas.

Harry Reid was the first speaker. He and Jeff Bingaman will be introducing legislation this week that would give federal regulators the authority to override state utility regulators in order to determine proper placement of new smart grid infrastructure. The legislation will be part of other energy policy proposals that the Senate is expected to consider soon.

Former President Bill Clinton was asked why an energy plan has taken so long … “We didn’t have the votes!”

Al Gore pointed out that Earth has about the same amount of carbon as Venus. Here, it is on the ground; on Venus, it is in the atmosphere.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi took up the call for the establishment of a new transmission grid and compared it to the building of the Interstate Highway in the 1950’s which, Al Gore had told the group at breakfast, was a project sponsored by his father, Sen. Al Gore, Sr.

Boone Pickens then laid out the problem of foreign oil - $475 billion spend in 2008 - and $17 billion in January alone. He pointed out that Mexico - which is our third largest supplier of foreign oil - is running out of oil and will be a net oil importer in five years. “That oil will have to be replaced by something - the choice is more oil from the Middle East or we can use our own resources."

“We have the renewables working, but wind or solar or biomass will not operate an 18-wheeler." He talked about Dave Freeman (who is sitting in the audience) who runs the Port of Los Angeles and is working to move all of the rolling stock at the Port from gasoline and diesel to natural gas.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu discussed the need for standards which attend to a smart grid. “It is difficult for anyone to begin working on a 21st Century grid” without knowing what the standards for allowing the grid to operate will be.”

Robert Kennedy (who appeared at the Capitol Hill Town Meeting with Boone in December) announced a new project to build a new solar-thermal plant in California which is cheaper to build than any other type of power plant.

Bill Clinton - "We have a consensus to move, but the details matter. We all know we are going to need cap and trade legislation, and we need a global agreement on standards. Hillary has just returned from China. She said they know what they have to do, but they don’t know how to get to a 50 percent reduction.

Most of us can’t do anything about China’s environment, but we can do the things which are right in front of us. We have to increase efficiency standards for household appliances. We have to allow states to fund local energy production and not reserve all the money for large power plants.

If you’re not in the government your job is to prove that this can work - at the local level. That means we have to stop favoring one type of power generation over another."

Other speakers:
John Sweeney, the head of the AFL-CIO, Van Jones, founder of Green for All, The Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar, Senator Byron Dorgan (ND), Denise bode, CEO of the Wind Energy Association, Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey, Lee Scott, CEO of WalMart, Andy Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union, Carl Pope of the Sierra Club, Michael Thaman, CEO of Owens Corning, and John Podesta, chair of the Center for American Progress, who helped organize the event.