Weekly Column by Senator Lamar Alexander - Energy Policy
Weekly Column By Senator Lamar Alexander - Energy Policy
For The Week Of May 2, 2005
April 2005 - Last week President Bush talked about the kind of comprehensive energy policy we must have in this country to lower natural gas prices and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
I am proud to report that a bill that Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota and I recently introduced supports the President's proposals by giving more flexibility to tap natural gas resources, incentivizing more facilities for the storage of liquefied natural gas, and encouraging alternative fuels.
Our bill includes aggressive importation of liquefied natural gas, for the time being, as part of an overall approach to clean energy in the United States. The legislation also supports the use of six coal gasification plants by 2013 to fully commercialize coal gasification. It also supports aggressive use of coal gasification for industrial applications and provides streamlined permitting for coal gasification facilities.
The bill includes investments in research and development of technologies and infrastructure to use hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles, which in the long term will reduce our dependence on foreign oil. I am proud to have sponsored the President's hydrogen initiative in the Senate.
The President also talked about the use of nuclear power. At a time when we are importing nearly 70 percent of our oil and increasingly moving toward importing more of our natural gas, our failure to use more nuclear power is another factor that makes us more dependent on the Middle East and other foreign resources.
During the 30 years that the United States has not built new nuclear power plants, other countries have moved ahead. France produces 78 percent of its electricity from nuclear power plants. Japan, once devastated by nuclear weapons, generates one-third of its electricity from nuclear plants. New nuclear power plants could keep production costs down and keep jobs from moving overseas.
I salute the President for bringing clean energy issues to the forefront and for making his proposals. All of these actions as part of a comprehensive clean energy bill will move us to the day when natural gas and fuel will be more affordable and we will be more independent as a nation.
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