Senator Jeff Bingaman
The View from DC
June / July 2004
Volume 2 Number 3
Energy is key to our nation's economic prosperity and security. Businesses depend on a ready, reliable and affordable energy supply. The more of that supply we can produce domestically, the more control we have over our national economic security. Yet right now our transportation sector is heavily dependent on imported oil. That dependence is growing each year at a rate that exceeds any potential new domestic production. Our energy infrastructure is operating close to capacity in a number of areas, including electricity
transmission, natural gas pipelines, petroleum product pipelines and refinery output.
Our overall electricity system is struggling with the transition from a system of local, regulated monopolies to one in which greater efficiency and affordability is achieved by the introduction of competition and new technologies.
There can be no doubt that America needs a comprehensive energy policy that addresses these concerns - one that strikes a balance between measures to increase energy supplies and measures to encourage additional efficiency. Renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind, geothermal and biomass can make a major contribution to meeting both of those goals.
We are fortunate in many ways to have two of the finest Department of Energy research laboratories located in our own backyard. Sandia and Los Alamos labs are both making a substantial contribution to DOE's ongoing research and development programs in renewable technologies and energy-efficient technologies. Los Alamos conducts about $110 million of energy-related R&D per year, and Sandia performs $85 million in energy R&D annually.
I have been pushing an energy policy that would substantially increase those funding levels at each lab. This would not only support the important work being performed by the scientists and engineers at our labs, it would also take us a step toward getting the next generation of these technologies to market.
I see the renewables and energy efficient technology industries
as key sources of high wage jobs in the future.  The United States can
either make the necessary investments to capture those jobs domestically, or we will see our international technological competitors taking the lead and reaping the benefits.
In addition to investing in R&D, any renewable energy policy we adopt
must effectively promote the use of renewables. One way that we can do so is through incentives in the tax code.  We could help meet the goal of increased production of electricity from renewable sources by renewing and strengthening an energy production tax credit that applies to all renewable energy sources.
 Another essential tool for increasing renewables is a national Renewable Portfolio Standard, similar to the ones that have been adopted by many states.  This standard of 10 percent electricity production, overall, by the year 2020, would be represent a flexible, market-friendly way to diversify our sources of electric supply away from the current path we are on, which is too dependent on use of natural gas.  
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Renewable Portfolio Standard I'm pressing for would result in over 350 billion kilowatt hours and 68,000 megawatts of renewable generation between 2008 and 2025. That is enough to supply 56 million U.S. households, or about half the total number.
We must also focus on increasing energy efficiency throughout our economy.  Achieving greater fuel efficiency, for example, is a key way to meet the energy needs of transportation sector in the future. We are pretty close to the capacity limits of our present system of refineries and gasoline pipelines.  New refineries and pipelines are also notoriously hard to site.
We have not built a new petroleum refinery in this country in decades and there are real limits to how much further we can expand existing ones. I think that we need to look for ways to address the needs we will have in our national fuels infrastructure,  The more efficient use of the gasoline we already consume, though, will help give us more time and flexibility in responding to these infrastructure and related siting pressures
Energy efficiency is also a key element in maintaining a reliable and affordable system of electricity generation and transmission. New electricity infrastructure is also very difficult to site. We can reduce the pressure on our electric power grid and natural gas infrastructure by taking common-sense steps to improve the efficiency of end-use of energy in buildings, appliances and industry.
Promoting energy-efficient lighting is a particularly compelling policy option, as new technologies for semiconductor lighting promise revolutionary changes to this market.  Worldwide markets in the billions of dollars could be up for grabs for the companies that perfect, patent, and implement this technology first.
 
To be sure, if we are going to meet all of our nation's future energy
demands we must also strongly support the oil and gas industry. We need
to assist independent U.S. producers who play a key role in this industry.  The federal government can do this by providing technical assistance in adopting new oil exploration and production technologies, by providing tax incentives to respond to the increased risk of looking for oil and gas in unconventional geological formations and by increasing funds to speed the federal permitting of
new domestic oil and gas production.
No one technology or energy supply source will, by itself, be the entire
answer to our energy challenges.  We need a balanced and robust portfolio
on both the energy supply and energy demand sides of the equation.  But
there is no doubt that if we want to plan for a strong economy and to
invest in our nation's security, renewable energies and energy efficient
technology need to be an important part of our strong, balanced portfolio.
 
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