THE CANDIDATES AGREE: MORE NEW ENERGY

Does anybody else get the feeling that these people are more overexposed than Paris Hilton and Britney Spears and more artificial than that Spice Girl who just moved to LA?

Consensus Emerges on Energy/Foreign Oil Will Be Spurned; Alternative Fuel Is Unclear
Gary Shapiro, August 13, 2007 (NY Sun)

WHO
The hordes of people running for the 2008 Republican and Democratic presidential nominations.




WHAT
Despite extreme partisanship and the divisions within the parties of the primary season, the candidates seem of almost one voice on the subject of energy: Get off foreign oil and get on with New Energies. There are, however, divisions over the kind of New Energies to develop.

WHEN
A quickly emerging consensus

WHERE
On the left and on the right and everywhere on the political spectrum in between

WHY
- Dependence on foreign oil enriches people many don’t like enriching. Some think Americans end up paying for both sides of the war on terror though others ague there is little correlation between terrorism and oil.
- Reducing fossil fuel use would be good for the environment, the air and could reverse climate change. While some argue over whether oil will run out, the oil companies have begun investing in New Energy.
- There is a populist resentment of rising gasoline prices. Some advocate for corn ethanol or cellulosic ethanol while others argue it is too much a burden on farmlands, the environment and the food supply. Others explain it is impossible to grow enough to displace foreign dependence.
- Many who have studied the matter say total independence is not possible but reliance on foreign sources can be reduced.
- Ann Korin, chair, Set America Free Coalition, has brought together the environmentalist National Resources Defense Council and Christian Conservatives.
- Former CIA director R. James Woolsey Jr. drives a hybrid and advocates for plug-ins.
- Many have mentioned the unity of the Sierra Club and the Evangelical movement on the stewardship of the earth.
- Solar energy and wind energy are not yet adequate to meet large-scale demand for electricity and there is still vigorous debate over nuclear energy.

One of the few authentic issues and everybody agrees on it. What does that tell you?

QUOTES
- Giuliani: "Energy independence, I think, is the single most important thing that's going to face us in the next four or five years aside from the terrorist war on us…"
- Clinton: “[New Energy would] increase our energy independence, create jobs, and provide cleaner, more reliable energy."
- Obama: "If we hope to strengthen our security and control our own foreign policy, we can offer no less of a commitment to energy independence [than the national effort to defeat the Soviets in space].”
- Bloomberg: "This constant dependence on oil is something that leaves this country vulnerable every day."
- Martin Feldstein, Reagan chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors/professor of economics, Harvard University: "While we cannot eliminate oil imports, we can reduce the volume."