Energy & Environment

It seems like you can’t pick up a newspaper or magazine today without seeing more alarming news about global warming. Global warming isn’t just something that’s going to happen. It’s something that already is happening. While it’s too late to prevent all environmental damage, it’s not too late to avoid the worst consequences if we begin to act now. The question is, “What exactly can we do about it?"

We know that carbon dioxide emitted by the burning of fossil fuels is the main cause of global warming and that we need to drastically reduce those emissions. Of the technologies that can accomplish this, energy efficiency and renewable energy are the most benign and sustainable. They can also be implemented the fastest. But can they do the job?

To answer that question, a year-and-a-half ago the American Solar Energy Society recruited a team of volunteer energy experts. We did not give them any targets to aim for. We merely asked them to estimate how much their technologies could reduce carbon emissions by the year 2030 if they were deployed as part of a highly aggressive national effort to combat global warming. Read more...

We need to stop kidding ourselves here on Capitol Hill and in Detroit. This should be one of the top priorities for the new majority if they want to stay true to their campaign promises. Autos are the number one polluter in the country. If we want to get serious on climate change and the air we breathe, it's about time Congress updates the nation's fuel standards.

Renewable energies, I think, are a keystone to the future of our country. I think we need to do three critical things: first, invest much more in renewable energy than we have; secondly, conserve, because we waste a lot of our energy today; and third, look at new technologies on how we might be able to gasify coal or move forward with cellulosic ethanol and the like. But we have a huge amount of interest in the U.S. Senate today on moving forward with that kind of strategy to get us off our overdependence on foreign oil.

In two consecutive State of the Union addresses, President Bush has talked about the importance of increasing renewable energy research and decreasing the nation's dependence on foreign oil. The American people support this, yet it still has not happened. Other moderate Republicans and I who believe our energy security demands immediate attention introduced H.R. 656, a bill to raise Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for the cars, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), minivans and pickup trucks that are sold in the United States.

According to a 2002 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study, technologies exist today that can allow cars and trucks to go much farther on a gallon of gasoline – without sacrificing today's features or safety. Knowing that increasing CAFE standards is feasible and safe, the bill would direct the Secretary of Transportation to raise CAFE standards from the current level of 25 miles per gallon (mpg) to 33 mpg over the next 10 years. By 2025, this move would save 2.6 million barrels of oil each day. Read more...

This important legislation, H.R. 656, would raise Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for the cars, SUV's, minivans and pickup trucks that are sold in the United States, requiring these specified vehicles to go further on a gallon of gas. Reasonable CAFE standards are achievable and there is no question they would have an impact on fuel consumption in this country. Some of my colleagues have introduced other proposals with respect to CAFE and it is my hope Congress will come to an agreement on a proposal that is ambitious and achievable.

A lot is being made of this being President Bush’s first address to a Democratic-led Congress. I appreciate that President Bush has proven he’ll take a stand and fight for his programs and initiatives. It’s the kind of leadership that makes things happen.

On the specifics, the President’s focus on making America energy independent and less reliant on fossil fuel is good for the nation and good for Iowa. He’s describing a very ambitious agenda. Based on the performance thus far in reaching the renewable fuels standard, his goal of increasing the standard is very realistic. That will benefit agriculture and rural America. Most importantly, though, this goal is necessary. Major goal-setting is the only way we’re going to wean ourselves off of foreign sources of energy.  Tonight’s goal is admirable, but only if it doesn’t come at the expense of existing supportive policies for renewable fuels, such as the ethanol excise tax credit and import tariff. Read more...

Tonight we saw a deeply unpopular President struggling to remain relevant and succeeding only in proving how out of touch he is with the American people.

There are millions of Americans who don't have health insurance. The president has had six years to do something about that, and he's done nothing. Now he is proposing raising taxes on middle class Americans to fund a system that still leaves millions uninsured.

Last year, just a week after saying that America is 'addicted to oil' in his State of the Union, the President sent Congress a budget that shortchanged the development of the alternative fuels and technologies needed to make America energy independent. He has had six years to do something about energy independence and global warming, and he's done nothing.

He has had six years to act in a bipartisan fashion, and we know he hasn't done that. Read more...

The Democrats' so-called "Energy Bill" does absolutely nothing to decrease our growing dependence on foreign oil - absolutely nothing.  We should be taxing foreign oil, not American oil.  But under this new Democratic Leadership, we aren't taxing Hugo Chavez and we aren't taxing Iran.  Instead, the Democrats are making us tax American oil.  But this gets worse.  This Democrat "Energy Bill" does absolutely nothing to increase American-made energy.  This Democratic bill forces America to cut oil and gas production in the few areas still open to production.  We are only using three percent of our Outer Continental Shelf for production, and now the Democrats are working to eliminate even this.  It is incomprehensible that this Democratic "Energy Bill" eliminates many good paying American jobs in our resource industries and instead increases jobs and American funding for Hugo Chavez's socialist regime and the OPEC cartel.  In addition, this bill contains provisions designed to hinder the Alaska natural gas pipeline - a project that could provide untold billions of cubic feet of clean burning natural gas for all regions of our nation.  This is unbelievable - an "Energy Bill" that eliminates or reduces domestic oil and natural gas production in favor of foreign production.

By now you probably know that the House of Representatives did the wrong thing last Thursday and passed H.R. 6, a bill that will make energy more expensive for all Americans and will drive energy production offshore, making us even more dependent on foreign sources of oil. Great, just what we needed--not.

The energy business is a capital-intensive industry. The cost to build an oil rig is in the $100 million range. A hundred million dollars. That's before the first drop of oil or gas is pumped out. Yet Congress seems hell-bent on making it tougher for energy companies to look for and tap our own resources right here at home. In a statement soon after the vote, energy expert and manufacturers' champion John Peterson (R-PA) had this to say: Read more...

The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act, sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA), sets the realistic limits we need on carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping emissions responsible for global warming.  Specifically, the bill calls for reductions of 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.  Such a cut give us the best chance of holding global warming down to about 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).  Higher temperature increases could lock us into large sea level rise and other damaging and irreversible consequences of global warming. Read more...