Report reiterates need for national energy policy

Report
reiterates need for national energy policy
…………………………………………………………………

The easing of
energy prices this summer has diverted national attention
away from the need for a comprehensive national energy policy
— and the consequences of this neglect could lead to
a future energy crisis similar to the one California experienced
last winter. That’s the conclusion of a report recently
released by two leading energy experts, Amy Myers Jaffe
of Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
and Edward L. Morse of Hess Trading Co. LLC.

While the energy
sector is no longer in the critical condition it was earlier
this year — when the Baker Institute and the Council
on Foreign Relations released the report of an Independent
Task Force headed by Morse and Jaffe — this new report
warns that it would be wrong for the public or policymakers
to assume that the crisis has been solved or that it was
fabricated.

Without a national
energy policy, the new report states, “energy shortages
and temporary dislocations can easily re-emerge for any
one of a number of reasons: from the resumption of accelerated
economic growth, to international political developments,
to the weather, to even an accident.” The report adds,
“It would be unwise to assume — barring intervention
— that the world has seen its last California-style
blackout.”

Jaffe and Morse
remind policymakers that developing a national energy policy
will involve hard choices. The United States will continue
to face the threat of energy shortages, the new report states,
“if we fail to respond to the strategic challenge of
merging a concrete plan for sustainable energy supply with
environmental protection and national security.”

Jaffe and Morse
give the Bush administration credit for trying to adopt
a comprehensive national energy policy, but urge the administration
to refine their energy proposals. In their new report, Morse
and Jaffe recommend:

• Developing
a stronger lead for U.S. diplomacy in the international
environmental arena and as a trade-off to enhanced exploration
and production of hydrocarbons in the short term, offering
a serious longer-term commitment to the development, deployment
and promotion of cleaner energy sources;
• Implementing, together with Congress, a more effective
and broader use of demand-management strategies and technologies
so as to reduce the country’s reliance on oil;
• Implementing a more effective program to open a broader
area of federal lands for exploration and production of
hydrocarbons, especially in the lower 48 states;
• Integrating into energy policy substantial efforts
to foster the development, deployment and promotion of cleaner
energy sources, including renewable energy, but also covering
new alternative energy technologies, nuclear energy and
clean coal technologies;
• Reviewing the adequacy of current levels of strategic
stockpiles, mechanisms for financing their expansion, definitions
of an emergency that would justify triggering use of strategic
reserves and arrangements for coordinating stock draws on
an equitable basis.

The new report
states that the debate over the Bush administration’s
proposal to open some 2,000 acres of the Alaska Wildlife
Refuge “is diverting attention from other highly prospective
areas that could be opened for fruitful exploration and
drilling activities.”