Energy Literacy Advocates Newsroom

The U.S. Congress greeted the first day of summer by passing a new energy bill that provides modest gains in conservation and efficiency, including mandates to boost the average fuel economy of the American vehicle fleet for the first time in over 20 years. The bill mandates auto fuel efficiency standards of 35 mpg by the year 2020, which is a step in the right direction. But though it might seem encouraging to see Congress finally take action on this issue, it would be dangerous for us to conclude that our nation’s energy crisis is being addressed at the speed and scale necessary to avoid serious economic, environmental and national security consequences. The fact is, the legislation Congress has passed is just a small step along a way we must traverse much more quickly if we are to arrive at a comprehensive national energy policy in time to avoid disaster.

As citizens, we have to face the reality that the cheap energy sources to which we have become accustomed are simply not going to be much longer available to us. The price of oil continues to climb, and for good reason – oil is becoming far more difficult to discover and extract, and most of the world’s remaining reserves (some 90%) are controlled by governments, which renders energy supplies vulnerable to shifts in political stabilities and interests. Our most plentiful and cheapest source of domestic power, coal, has come under intense scrutiny as we begin to realize the deleterious environmental effects of its use. Until we can more surely and safely capture and sequester carbon coal emissions, reliance on coal as an energy mainstay is not the answer. Other options such as nuclear, solar and wind energy present myriad opportunities and challenges our federal government is nowhere close to addressing adequately.

Our current national crisis is like a very old dam through which more and more leaks are bursting and growing. It is good to see Congress, automakers, and the American public beginning to acknowledge the leaks in the dam, but simply putting our fingers in the holes and hoping for the best does not solve the problem.

Instead, let us use this fresh attention on energy as a wake up call. For starters, let’s acknowledge how deeply dependent we are on energy to drive every aspect of our economy, and therefore how devastating a large disruption in energy supplies would be. From there, consider the environmental effects of our current energy use, and how different the world and the global economy will look if we continue to underestimate the consequences of global warming. Last, let us not forget the sacrifices we demand of our troops in regions where we deploy them to protect U.S. and other countries’ oil interests, not to mention the need for a more sustainable U.S. foreign policy trajectory for the sake of long-term national security.

As we are only now beginning to realize, the key to healthy U.S. economic, environmental and foreign policy is a sound energy policy. The more informed our democracy is about the magnitude and urgency of our national energy crisis, the more responsibly it will demand our legislators act. A responsible, comprehensive national energy policy would heavily promote efficiency and conservation, provide incentives for clean use of conventional energy resources, and place emphasis on the development of fossil fuel alternatives. Whatever our party affiliation, we are all citizens and guardians of our country’s health and our children’s future. It is our duty to demand far more from our national legislators.

In the meantime, our citizenry is being lulled into complacency by a political culture that thrives on creating impressions of progress far short of the level of action required. If we are to have a future preferable to the predictable, we simply must wake up, get informed, and demand the level of action our country really needs.



Jamie Lang
Executive Director
EnergyLiteracy.org
720-222-0556
jlang@energyliteracy.org

Dr. Chris Atwood
President
303-495-2900
catwood@energyliteracy.org