Odum: It’s Time for a Grand Bargain

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Encouraging Development

• Breaux: Congress Should Not Wait for a Crisis to Act
• Clark: Old Policies Stunting Potential for Innovation
• Gingrich: Energy Policy Should Rest on Incentives, Not Punishment
• Harbert: Private Sector Ready to Do Its Part

Advanced Technologies

• Agassi: Let’s Lead the Green Industrial Revolution
• Brdar: Fuel Cell Energy: Clean, Abundant
• Burns: Clean Energy Is Made in the USA
• Slocum: Beware of Polluters Claiming to Have Converted to Green

The Climate Change Debate

• Riggs and Monsma: Time to Tackle the Big Three Issues, Together
• Shapiro: Economy Will Force Quick Action on Climate Change
• Wirth: Moment of Truth Arrives for Action on Climate Change
• Zoi: Change Needed in Policy and Attitude

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We’ve all heard the idea “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” But there is an environmental example where if we do learn from history, we can successfully repeat it.

In designing a carbon dioxide cap and trade system, we will do well to remember acid rain.

Remember acid rain?

You don’t hear much about it these days. That’s because back in the 1990s, the government implemented the Acid Rain Program, based on a flexible, cost-sensitive cap-and-trade program.

The results? Extraordinary!

The Environmental Protection Agency reported nearly 100 percent compliance in reducing sulfur dioxide emissions. In fact, power plants participating in the program reduced these emissions 22 percent below mandated levels. And the cost? After several years it had dropped to less than a third of the most wildly optimistic pre-program projections and is expected to stay there.

So, we did it before and we can do it again.

I share President Barack Obama’s aspiration for a future where the United States is less dependent on foreign oil and enjoys the economic and environmental benefits of a greener energy mix. But I’m also concerned that, beyond the aspiration, we’ve yet to see a realistic road map for filling the gap as we move from one energy mix to another. Wishing doesn’t make it so. Neither does aspiring.

Alternate energy isn’t instant energy. Any greener energy future will be decades in the making. America has an immense, incredibly complex energy system built over more than a century, at great cost. It can’t be changed overnight. Nor is alternative technology sufficiently advanced to provide energy at prices people can afford and at a scale that will make a difference. It is ambitious, but reasonable, to double the power contribution of wind and solar over the next three years. But we’ll have to keep doubling it every three years for more than two decades to reach even 25 percent of our energy mix. That’s quite a gap.

The bridge to a low-carbon energy future must rest on piers of oil, coal and natural gas. By 2050, the world will demand twice as much energy as today. Do the math. There’s no way to make the transition without a key role for oil and gas.

It is both interesting and intriguing that what the president is saying about our economic quandary can also be said about our energy quandary: “It is serious. It didn’t happen overnight. And it is going to take time and effort to turn it around.”

Exactly on target for energy as well! We need an “energy stimulus” — not money, but action and access.

This is why we must take full advantage of our own significant, and largely untapped, offshore oil and gas resources. Developing these resources will create solid, long-term jobs, help provide energy security, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and generate much-needed government revenue while we work toward a greener future.

I’m convinced, and our record proves, these offshore resources can be produced safely and responsibly, providing significant national benefit without a penny of stimulus money. Oil and gas production technology, science and safety have improved dramatically over recent decades. Even so, some areas must stay off-limits to drilling. But, just because some areas shouldn’t be drilled doesn’t mean all areas shouldn’t be explored. Work could get under way quickly in many places with the administration’s green light.