Achieving energy independence in 10 years is critical to America’s economic health and national security. We strengthen our enemies by purchasing billions of dollars of their oil, and we bleed billions from our national wealth to buy their oil.  We need that money in our country to serve our own people and our needs.

The Bush Administration’s Energy plan, formulated by two oil men for the oil industry, has been wildly successful—for Big Oil.  The profits reaped by our biggest oil companies are literally the greatest in history.  Our dependence on oil doesn’t just cause higher energy prices, but presents a national security threat that throws us into greater danger, since the oil supply is controlled in large part by countries not friendly to us.

Let’s face it—as conservative oil man T. Boone Pickens has said in the Wall Street Journal “My Plan to Escape the Grip of Foreign Oil”, we can’t drill ourselves out of this crisis.  We only have a minuscule 3% of the world’s oil reserves, but use up 25% of the world’s oil.  Our energy needs have outgrown our supply of oil.

The future lies with the technology for alternative and renewable energy. This new technology will bring new “green” job, replacing those jobs that have been outsourced. For example, there will be green jobs to construct or retrofit energy-efficient buildings and vehicles, to install solar panels, or to develop biofuels or renewable electric power.  I supported and later voted for the Green Jobs Act of 2007 (HR 2847), which was incorporated as Title X of the Energy Independence and Security Act (HR 6), and signed into law on December 19, 2007.  It establishes state and national programs to train workers for jobs in the renewable energy and energy-efficiency industries. In a new study, the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst estimates that at least 2 million “green” jobs over two years would be created through investment in the new technologies. In New Hampshire, that could result in more than 9,000 jobs, and a reduction in unemployment of 1.3%.

Another big problem with hanging on to this Fred Flintstone energy policy from the 19th century is that we are adding to the greenhouse gases that drive climate change and global warming. In our own state, we saw two 100-year floods—one after another—followed by more floods and a devastating tornado. Hurricanes batter the southern US with increasing frequency and severity.  In order to slow down climate change and protect our prosperity and our very planet, we must act now to develop 21st-century alternative and renewable energy technologies.

I am fighting for an energy policy that serves the people's interests and promotes both conservation and innovation.  It's essential for our environment and also for our national security, since much of our oil money is also being used against us in the Middle East. The government needs to invest heavily in research and development right now. We have taken a step in this direction in the 110th Congress. I voted to establish the Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy (HR 364) or ARPA-E, to reduce foreign imports by developing new technologies, and it was signed into law on July 30, 2008. 

But small steps won’t get us where we need to go.  I’m still calling for the creation of an Apollo-type program for energy, independent from the Department of Energy, to have the goal of facilitating and achieving energy independence in 10 years. Seeking the best and the brightest employees, it would set energy self-reliance and clean environment goals, and direct its employees to concentrate on various aspects of these goals. Working with industry, universities, and environmental experts and organizations, this new agency must hammer out a coordinated, workable plan.

Just as the IT revolution was taking off with interactive computers, we as a nation did not walk backwards clinging to our electric typewriters, as Thomas Friedman has pointed out, but forged ahead with the new technology.  Americans are an innovative people, and we can do this.  We must forge ahead now and not look back.