Cantwell Calls on President to Back Large-Scale Investment in Alternative Energy Technologies

Cantwell Calls on President to Back Large-Scale Investment in Alternative Energy Technologies

As president prepares 2008 budget, Cantwell and 23 other senators call for new direction in energy policy to break U.S. oil addiction

Wednesday, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and other senators called on President Bush to significantly increase funding for alternative energy programs and incentives that will allow our nation to utilize cleaner and more diverse energy sources. The senators' call comes as the president and his Office of Management and Budget prepare the administration's budget request for fiscal year 2008.

"Last January, in his State of the Union address, the president finally admitted our oil addiction, but he has yet to develop a plan to confront this addiction," said Cantwell, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and co-founder of the Apollo Alliance. "To break our overdependence on fossil fuels, we need a large-scale investment to really move us towards a 21st century energy system. The president should significantly increase funding for alternative energy programs already on the books and develop a real plan to address our energy needs with more affordable and reliable fuel sources."

In a letter sent Wednesday to President Bush, Cantwell and 23 other senators, including Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Energy Committee Ranking Member Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Robert Byrd (D-WV), and Finance Committee Ranking Member Max Baucus (D-MT), called for an aggressive federal investment in alternative fuel development beginning with the fiscal year 2008 budget.

"As you are well aware, over the last few years American families, businesses, farmers, and economic interests have been burdened by volatile and increasing energy prices," the senators wrote. "These forces have cost thousands of jobs, exacerbated our trade deficit, and caused tremendous investment losses and economic uncertainty. In addition, we believe the ongoing turmoil in Iraq and other major oil producing countries, growing international competition for limited fossil fuel resources, and OPEC's increasing oligopoly power—not to mention new and ominous signs of global warming—are clear and present signs that our country must act now to increase our nation's energy independence."

In their letter, the senators called on the president to back significant increases in funding for energy efficiency, biofuels development, and clean energy technology. They also stressed the importance of alternative vehicles, including flex-fuel plug-in hybrid vehicles, and fully funding the clean energy programs included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Cantwell has fought continuously to increase our nation's energy independence, promote greater use of domestically produced biofuels, develop a biofuels industry in Washington state with the help of local crops and agriculture waste, increase the availability of flex-fuel vehicles and biofuel pumps, and improve national fuel economy standards. In June, Cantwell introduced her bipartisan Ten-in-Ten Fuel Economy Act (S.3543), which would increase combined corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2017 for all passenger cars and light trucks, including sport utility vehicles. She has also sponsored comprehensive energy legislation (S.2829) that provides specific legislative measures to reach a national goal of reducing domestic oil consumption equivalent to 40 percent of America's projected imports in the next 20 years.

[The text of the senators' letter follows below]

October 11, 2006

The President
The White House
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President:

As you and the Office of Management and Budget are now preparing your Administration's fiscal year 2008 budget request, we urge you to include funding that will dramatically improve the direction of our nation's energy policy.

As you are well aware, over the last few years American families, businesses, farmers, and economic interests have been burdened by volatile and increasing energy prices. These forces have cost thousands of jobs, exacerbated our trade deficit, and caused tremendous investment losses and economic uncertainty. In addition, we believe the ongoing turmoil in Iraq and other major oil producing countries, growing international competition for limited fossil fuel resources, and OPEC's increasing oligopoly power—not to mention new and ominous signs of global warming—are clear and present signs that our country must act now to increase our nation's energy independence.

We have said it before, but it bears repeating. The United States must urgently launch an Apollo project-scale effort to create a 21st century energy system based on cleaner and more diverse energy sources, benchmarked to an aggressive national oil savings goal. Energy experts estimate that such an Apollo project requires tens of billions of dollars in Federal investments to be matched by a similar level of private investment. However, these federal investments would be returned to the U.S. Treasury via increased tax revenues and would create millions of high wage manufacturing jobs.

Toward this end, we hope that your fiscal year 2008 budget request will include significant increases in funding to promote and accelerate energy efficiency, biofuels, alternative fuels and vehicles, including flex-fuel plug-in hybrid vehicles, clean coal and carbon sequestration, and clean and renewable energy. It should provide for expansion and long-term extensions of tax incentives and credits for production of renewable energy and fuels, for energy efficiency investments and technology, and for manufacturing of advanced efficient vehicles. A good starting point would be to at least fund the clean energy programs you enthusiastically supported in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Unfortunately, some of the federal government's most effective energy research programs have been more or less level funded since 2001. On August 8, 2005, you said that "The Energy Policy Act of 2005 is going to help every American who drives to work, every family that pays a power bill, and every small business owner hoping to expand," but then your subsequent fiscal year 2007 budget request failed to support many of the new programs and incentives in the bill, including the loan guarantee programs for ethanol, cellulosic ethanol, and other renewable energy and fuels. Over the past year, Democrats have sought to rectify this deficit by adding billions of dollars to the fiscal year 2007 budget for clean energy and energy efficiency deployment programs; unfortunately, we were blocked by majority party opposition.

Mr. President, we appreciated your State of the Union acknowledgement that our nation is "addicted to oil." But without an aggressive federal investment beginning in your fiscal year 2008 budget, the Energy Information Administration's short term projections confirm that our dependency will grow and energy prices will continue to be volatile and higher than even just two years ago. We look forward to working with you to chart a new energy direction that will swiftly make America safer and more energy independent.

Sincerely,

Harry Reid Richard Durbin Maria Cantwell Jeff Bingaman Robert Byrd Daniel Inouye Byron Dorgan Dianne Feinstein John Kerry Ron Wyden Barack Obama Joe Lieberman Bob Menendez Debbie Stabenow Mary Landrieu Jack Reed Tim Johnson Frank Lautenberg Patrick Leahy Daniel Akaka Barbara Boxer Chris Dodd Ken Salazar Max Baucus

http://cantwell.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=264589&&days=30&