Search
|
What price energy independence?
Jul 8, 2010
(Interview with POLITICO's Emily Schultheis)
Washington, Jul 8, 2010 -
Rep. Cliff StearnsCongressman (R-Fla.) :
(Interview with POLITICO's Emily Schultheis)
Has the Obama administration taking tangible steps toward energy independence?
I have to say I don’t believe so. In the cap-and-trade bill, there’s not the kind of incentives for us to transition to alternative energies.
For example, there’s nothing dealing with nuclear and hydropower energy. Right now, at least for another maybe 10 or 20 years, we’re going to be dependent on oil and petroleum products, so we need to wean ourselves off this imported oil and reduce our need for petroleum.
Alternative fuels would hasten this transition. We have a lot of natural gas as well as shale oil in this country, but the administration has not given us a program to encourage this transition from petroleum and alternative energy. And this transition would be using our energy resources in this country, including nuclear energy, hydropower, shale oil and using coal in an environmentally sound, clean way.
What steps should we take to move toward this transition to energy independence?
Well, we need a strong economy. And I think what we need to do is, as I mentioned, make part of our energy program a concerted Manhattan-type program – like the development of atomic energy. America can go to the moon – we should be independent of Mideast oil by a certain date, and use all the natural resources we have toward that, while at the same time putting more resources into research and development into what we can do, like wind power, solar power and electric batteries.
What tradeoffs should the American people be prepared for in this transition?
I think we have to be willing to fund the research and development, which requires a demonstration phase so these resources can become economically viable through decreased production costs and increased efficiency.
We have to have choices, and these will come … we need to stress [conservation] of energy. Towards that end, if we had the economy returned, that would help too.
The point I want to make – this Manhattan project, the purpose of this is to get us independent of the Mideast petroleum imports. That’s the purpose of it. It’s not so much to make us so we don’t use petroleum at all, it’s so we’re not buying petroleum from countries that are antithetical to our values.