Energy (September 2009)

While the path forward in Congress for energy and climate legislation remains unclear, we did receive a potentially significant piece of good news in recent weeks.

Last year, upon the lifting of the moratoria on oil and gas drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), Americans were afforded the opportunity to expand exploration of the vast potential of our public energy resources in offshore waters. 

These are challenging times. Our economy is ailing, unemployment is soaring and deficits are at record levels, totaling more than $9 trillion over the next decade.

What’s wrong with Congress’s approach to global warming? Nearly everything.

For starters, to achieve the Waxman-Markey legislation’s 83 percent baseline reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2050, we will have to reduce the CO2 output in the United States to the level that we had back in 1910. On a per capita basis, assuming the population is going to average about 1 percent growth a year, the legislation gets us to 1875.

In June, the House narrowly passed H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act. The Senate has begun considering legislation on the same subject.

At a critical time in the energy policy debate, faced with the twin concerns of climate change and rising energy demand, the Obama administration and environmental organizations such as the Pew Center for Climate Change and the Environmental Defense Fund have reached a surprising consensus. Despite past reservations about nuclear energy, they now acknowledge that the nation’s most significant carbon-free electricity source has a role to play in an economically sound, low-carbon energy policy for America.