Op-ed: "Innovation Will Pave The Way To A Stable Energy Future"

July 16, 2008, By Bart Gordon

With gas prices around $4 a gallon in Tennessee and even higher in many parts of the country, it’s no wonder people are suffering.  I’ve heard from a family in Cookeville that must choose between paying for oxygen tanks needed for their health or paying for gas. I’ve heard from an independent truck driver in Carthage who is worried his truck may be repossessed because he has fallen behind on payments as diesel prices have increased. And I’ve heard from countless others who commute to their jobs and are struggling to cope with record gas prices.

Our reliance on foreign energy sources is hurting our economy and threatening our future. Congress is pursuing short-term fixes to ease the strain we feel each time we fill up our gas tanks, but what America needs in addition to this is a long-term energy policy that enables us to become more energy independent and not be held hostage to the prices or politics of the Middle East.

When I was elected chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee last year, I made it the priority of the committee to engage immediately in discussion of our energy problems. I introduced legislation that was signed into law last year to help speed the development of alternative fuels and get new energy technology from the laboratory and into the hands of consumers.

The America COMPETES Act, which I introduced, creates an Advanced Research Projects Agency at the Department of Energy to provide talent and resources for high-risk, high-reward research and development of revolutionary new energy technologies. ARPA-E would be modeled after a similar successful program at the Department of Defense that gave rise to the development of the Internet, stealth technology and GPS technology in vehicles. ARPA-E would enable researchers to defy conventional thinking on energy and pursue cutting-edge research for the most pressing energy challenges we face. By putting top public- and private-sector researchers together and giving them the resources they need, we could see the development of batteries that replace the need for gasoline in cars or modern fuels that replace the need for foreign oil.

A second bill signed into law last year, the Energy Independence and Security Act, will spur the development of new energy technologies. The bill includes provisions I introduced to aid development of the next generation of biofuels from non-food based crops, increase energy efficiency and make renewable energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal heat more accessible and affordable for consumers.

The bills Congress passed last year can help, and so will other short-term initiatives, like forcing oil companies to use the drilling permits they currently hold on 68 million acres of federal lands, stopping shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and investigating how speculation in energy markets may be contributing to high gas prices. But adequate funding of new technologies is necessary to bring a drastic change in the nation’s energy policy. While the United States has only 1.6 percent of the world's known oil supply, Americans account for 25 percent of the world’s daily oil consumption.  We must search for more domestic oil in the short term, but as long as we rely so heavily on oil, we will be held hostage to our dependence on oil from foreign countries. That’s why I will continue to work to fund ARPA-E, energy efficiency and conservation programs, and efforts to bring renewable, domestic sources of energy to families in Cookeville, truck drivers in Carthage and consumers across Middle Tennessee.

Congressman Bart Gordon of Murfreesboro represents Tennessee's 6th district in the U.S. House of Representatives.