Natural Apex: Defining a National Energy Policy for the Next Decade
by In the years to come, essential raw materials from crude oil and arable farmland to clean air and fresh water will be in short supply. Wealth among nations will be more accurately measured by access to natural resources and raw materials than by the value of goods produced and services available. Based on shortages of essential raw materials, sustained prosperity of some nations is only achievable through deliberately depriving other nations of theirs. Animosity between nations will trigger debilitating resource skirmishes around the world, which no nation will win. Willingness by the United States to assume a leadership role in solving an imminent global crisis by assessing the impact of dwindling natural resources, analyzing alternatives from natural resource conservation to increased use of renewable resources and reliance on green technologies, and then executing a national energy policy defined from a truly global perspective is urgently needed. The stakes have never been higher.
Comprehensive energy policy planning is based on a balance of: identifying issues, exploring viable options to resolve those issues, and then generating decisive action plans leveraging the best information available. However, successful policies are built on more than a single decision made or an action taken by government. Examples of single actions perceived as an energy plan include legislation to tax oil company profits, and drawing down the inventory of our strategic petroleum reserve to reduce the price of gasoline. Such spontaneous, uncoordinated actions are little more than ineffective, short-term fixes for a complex long-term problem and do not constitute an energy plan.
Implementing a strategic energy policy is challenging and time-consuming, due to the large number of critical tasks coordinated and undertaken at virtually the same time. Key elements of this policy, such as conserving oil and other non-renewable resources, increasing our reliance on wind, solar and other renewable energy sources, untangling the relationship between food and fuel production, providing incentives for alternative energy development, and leveraging new and innovative technologies are presented as a series of interdependent policy initiatives. Working together, policy initiatives support key objectives of our national energy policy.
National Energy Policy Objectives
- Reduction in domestic crude oil consumption by 50 percent by 2020
- Increase in capacity of strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) to 1.5 billion barrels
of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) grade and Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)
light sweet grade crude oil by 2025
- Reduction of global food shortages caused by indiscriminant diversion of
agricultural output to produce biofuels by 2015
- Significant reduction in the deforestation of the Amazon basin and other
endangered regions to grow crops for use as biofuel feedstock by 2020
- Increase in stockpiles of corn- and sugarcane-based ethanol to augment
reductions in gasoline production through 2021
- Significant increase in baseload and peak electrical power generation by
integrating wind, solar, and geothermal power plants with new or modified coal,
nuclear, and hydroelectric power facilities
- Establishment and enforcement of long-term standards for energy efficiency,
greenhouse gas emissions, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) for new
and existing coal-fired power plants
- Increase in natural gas supplies for domestic consumption through
sequestration and storage of stranded deposits worldwide and from
development of unconventional sources
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