Blueprint for Action and Leadership
Facts, Choices, and Challenges
Blueprint for Action and Leadership
What have we learned and what can we conclude?
A relatively diverse and affordable supply of fuel and power has been one of our nation’s distinctive competitive advantages, and it can continue to be in the future.
We are home to vast energy resources, the best technologies, an extensive energy infrastructure, and a productive and innovative industry with a global reach.
Some two-thirds of our energy comes from domestic sources, not foreign countries. Yet transportation relies heavily on crude oil, 60% of which is imported.
Under current policies, America’s total energy demand will grow by at least a third over the next quarter century. Increased efficiency can lessen that growth but not erase it.
Fossil fuels currently constitute 86% of our energy mix. Even assuming the development of promising alternatives and increased efficiency, we will continue to rely on these traditional energy sources.
The good news is that the world’s and the nation’s supply of fossil fuels is vast. We are not running out of oil or gas, and there is an abundance of coal in the ground.
But the global competition for these resources is fierce, which drives up prices, and some of our imported energy comes from unstable countries and regions. America’s own untapped resources are subject to severe restrictions.
Furthermore, the national infrastructure needed to produce, refine, transport, and transmit fuel and power is stretched to the breaking point.
Over the next 15 years, the power industry will have to make capital investments that exceed its entire current net plant value to keep pace with demand and comply with regulations.
Unless we expand access to energy from all sources and ensure affordable fuel and electricity, we will see accelerating job losses and business flight and a sharp impact on the budgets of American families.
Of course, in any discussion of energy it is necessary to address the growing belief that climate change is a serious issue and that CO2 emissions—a by-product of fossil fuels—should be controlled.
The only workable response will be a global one, because most of the growth in CO2 emissions will come from large developing economies such as China, India, and Brazil.
America has an exciting opportunity to lead the world to innovative solutions that simultaneously spur economic growth and clean the environment. We can be the champions of new technologies that foster greater energy efficiency, the development of viable alternatives, and cleaner and more effective methods to find, extract, and use the traditional sources that we will continue to rely on.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its new Institute for 21st Century Energy believe that an affordable, diverse, and secure energy supply is fundamental to our security and to the expansion of economic opportunity and prosperity for all Americans. We are equally convinced that this energy can be secured while making further progress in the fight for environmental quality and significant contributions to the management of climate change.
We will work for energy and related environmental policies that advance the following five critical goals:
- Maintain a strong economy and boost American jobs and competitiveness by increasing the nation’s energy supply from all sources—oil, gas, coal, nuclear, and alternative fuels and technologies.
- Protect our national security through the expansion of domestic energy production while safeguarding our energy assets at home and across the globe.
- Preserve and improve the environment through greater efficiency, technology-based solutions, and the sound management of global climate change.
- Expand the nation’s fuel and power generation and delivery systems to meet the growing energy needs of American consumers and businesses.
- Encourage U.S. government and private sector leadership to address global energy problems through positive international engagement and the application of American technology and innovation.
Energy is the single most important physical resource underpinning America’s economic prosperity and global competitiveness. Energy also has a direct impact on our national security, national defense, and the geopolitical stability of the world.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Institute for 21st Century Energy invite you to join us in supporting a bold program of reforms to address the fundamental fact-based energy realities outlined in this report. We welcome your thoughts, critiques, and ideas.
How and whether we meet the challenge of securing clean, affordable, and plentiful energy will fundamentally define the future of our nation. Facts, not fantasies, must guide us along the way.