Lieberman Seeks Alternatives Energy Sources
By Mandy Kozar
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16-In an effort to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, Sen. Joseph Lieberman on Wednesday proposed federal regulations as well as individual incentives to cut oil consumption and promote alternative sources of energy.
The plan, Lieberman said, “will dramatically cut the dependence on foreign oil that is sapping America’s power and independence as a nation.”
Asserting that a growing reliance on other regions, particularly the Middle East, for oil is a security as well as an economic risk to the United States, Lieberman and a bipartisan group of senators announced that they want to decrease oil consumption by 10 million barrels a day by 2031.
“The issue of America’s dependence on foreign oil is more than an economic issue, it is a national security issue as well,” Lieberman said. “That no matter how mighty we are militarily, if we rely for oil that runs our country on a small number of other countries, we can be brought to our knees and that is something obviously we cannot allow to happen.”
According to the Energy Information Administration, the United States imported 58 percent of its oil in 2004. This reliance on foreign oil concerns Lieberman and seven other senators, who Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Indiana) jokingly referred to as the “Energetic 8.”
“Nothing less than our national security is at stake here,” Lieberman said. “When you think about our reliance on oil, we are just one well-orchestrated attack or political upheaval away from a $100 barrel of oil overnight that would send the global economy tumbling and the industrialized including its new giant members, China and India, scrambling to secure supplies from the remaining and limited number of oil supply sites.”
The plan focuses on the transportation sector by setting targets for flexible fuel vehicles, alternative fueled vehicles, hybrids, and plug-in hybrids by providing tax breaks and loan guarantees to automakers as well as tax breaks for those who purchase alternative fueled vehicles.
The senators also called for an increase in alternative fuel sources such as ethanol, an alcohol-based fuel that can be created from crops such as corn barley and wheat.
A switch to ethanol as a source of fuel for vehicles would allow the United States to use idle cropland to produce billions of barrels of new fuels, Lieberman said.
“We’re attempting to be more dependent on the Midwest than the Mideast for our oil supply,” said Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), a co-sponsor of the bill.
Ethanol is already being used in countries such as Brazil, where a substantial sugar cane industry is responsible for providing large quantities that are then integrated into the fuel supply.
Joining Lieberman, Brownback and Bayh in co-sponsoring the bill were Ken Salazar (D-Colorado), Norm Coleman (R-Minnesota ), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Bill Nelson (D-Florida) and Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama).
Lieberman said that he is encouraged by the bipartisan support his bill has received, as well as similar legislation that has been proposed in the House of Representatives.
“The purpose of this legislation is to set America free by cutting our dependence on foreign oil thereby strengthening our security, protecting our independence and energizing our economy,” he said.
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