Cohen, Nunn, Applaud Obama Energy Initiative, Call for Bipartisan Support

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2009 – Former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and former Senator Sam Nunn, praising President Obama’s call for a multinational Energy and Climate Change Forum, today sent a joint letter to the president (a copy of which below this release), presenting a set of energy recommendations and calling for bipartisan support to help the Obama Administration develop, implement, and sustain a sensible energy policy.

“The recommendations we are making to the Administration today reflect the unquestionable link between our nation’s energy security and our national security,” said Nunn, a former Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“We recognize the unprecedented nature of the economic challenges that face us,” said Cohen, the first Republican to serve as Secretary of Defense in a Democratic presidential administration. “Those challenges must serve not as an excuse to avoid dealing with energy issues but instead as impetus to enact these recommendations, which will help to put us on a sounder long-term economic footing.”

The recommendations found in the letter were developed at a conference held last November at the Howard Gilman Foundation’s White Oak conference center in northern Florida. The meeting was attended by a broad array of distinguished security, environmental, and business leaders, as well as journalists and policymakers.

Cohen and Nunn organized the conference because of their strong belief that the United States, despite the myriad challenges it now faces, must address the twin crises of energy security and climate change to ensure a secure and prosperous future.

The letter includes 10 steps around which Cohen and Nunn think bipartisan consensus can be reached, and, if followed, will do much toward improving the energy future of the United States.

This effort was the culmination of the Cohen-Nunn Dialogues, initiated in early 2008 by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) and the New York-based Howard Gilman Foundation to promote bipartisan conversation about the critical issues facing Americans during the election year.
 

TO: President Obama
FROM: William Cohen and Sam Nunn

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing to express bipartisan support for the Energy Security and Climate Change Forum initiative you recently announced.

With so many pressing challenges facing your administration, we believe the manner in which you address the twin crises of energy security and climate change will be a major factor in determining our country’s security, prosperity, and place in the world for years to come. As you contemplate both the agenda and the outcomes for the upcoming Energy Security and Climate Change Forum, we want to bring to your attention a series of recommendations which emerged from the November White Oak energy security discussions. We assembled a broad array of distinguished individuals from the security and environmental communities and American business as well as journalists and policymakers.

Our White Oak discussions on “America in Transition: Energy and National Security.” marked the culmination of the Cohen-Nunn Dialogues, which we initiated in early 2008 to promote bipartisan conversation about the critical issues facing Americans.

Our takeaway from that discussion was that America must develop, implement, and sustain a sensible energy policy. The global landscape for energy is changing in ways that we are only just beginning to understand. Take the following three facts:

• Based on our current trajectory, projected population growth, GDP, and living standards in the developing and emerging economies will drive the demand and growth of liquid fuels in the future. By 2030, this increase will require the addition of six new Saudi Arabia’s worth of oil production.



• On any given day, roughly half of the world’s oil passes through a handful of the world’s busiest choke points, including the Strait of Hormuz and Strait of Malacca. As global producers become more concentrated and farther from consumption centers, delivery chains become more vulnerable to piracy and terrorism, as well as political and economic leverage.



• The scale of the current global energy system is enormous, and 85 percent of the world’s energy needs are still met using fossil fuels. Transforming to a low-carbon energy future will require a sustained commitment by business and government, technological breakthroughs, major new investments, and the time required to put a functional new system in place. We have to find a way to transition to a low-carbon economy fast enough to avoid the most severe consequences of global warming while keeping the country on a sustainable path out of the worst financial crisis in decades.

In this new era, energy has become both a national security issue and an international security issue of the highest order. New consumers like China and India could become strategic rivals over diminishing natural resources. The foreign policy capabilities and domestic stability of global producers like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela rise and fall with fluctuating oil and gas prices. Greater pressures on water, food, and land as a result of energy scarcity mean that the world’s poorest in Africa and Latin America are likely to fall even further behind.

Perhaps most importantly, America’s image abroad will be tied in large part to our willingness to work with others to tackle energy and climate change in a smarter, more balanced, and more sustainable way. This means leading on global energy and climate agreements in multilateral settings like the upcoming UN conference in Copenhagen. We must make America part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

As you know, we must start at home. The global financial crisis has made it more difficult to build the political will to work toward a low-carbon future. The public is skeptical of new investments and new regulations, and Americans have welcomed the relief that low energy prices have brought at the pump and at home. Low prices, however, mean fewer incentives to promote greater efficiency and to develop alternative energy forms. In the longer run, low prices are likely to stimulate a resumption of higher demand growth, which in turn will mean tight supplies and higher prices equaling or exceeding 2008 spikes.

Absent a dramatic shift in strategy, we are destined to find ourselves in an even more difficult situation in four years time. We need national leadership today that can mobilize the government and private sector to engage Americans in a dialogue on energy security. This is a fixable problem, but we must challenge our political system, our private corporations, and each family and individual to bring about the change we need.

Defining Energy Security

The notion of “energy independence” resonates both in public opinion polls and political circles, and although we can move boldly to reduce our vulnerabilities, total independence is many decades away. We live in an interdependent world with trade and treaty obligations, foreign policy priorities, and global markets. There are, however, clearly ways in which we can enhance our energy security, which we would define as ensuring access to reliable and affordable energy supplies. The challenge is that people tend to view energy security in very different ways.

But there are vast areas of agreement on the range of actions we can and should be taking now to ensure that our energy needs are met. First and foremost, we need to substantially improve our energy efficiency across the board. Secondly, we need to continue to diversify and expand our fuel choices, including conventional oil and gas, coal, nuclear, and renewables. Simultaneously, we need a major continuing investment in research and development; innovation and deployment of technology, human capital, and skills; and infrastructure. We need to better manage our political relationships abroad with suppliers and consumers, as energy security is a global issue. And if we are truly serious about addressing the threats of climate change, we need to set a price for carbon.

None of these actions is possible until Americans begin to view sustainable energy and climate solutions as critical to the country’s national and economic security, to their own personal situation, and to the future quality of life of their children. Your campaign proposed a comprehensive energy program with elements addressing each of these goals. There are multiple reasons why your administration can and should take bold steps now to move forward with this agenda.

First, addressing this challenge is critical to our competitiveness as a nation. Energy security is necessary to ensure U.S. prosperity and long-term economic growth.

Second, energy and climate change provide a unique leadership opportunity for the United States at a time when it needs to revitalize its standing in the world. This is a challenge shared by every country in the world, and nothing will get done without our leadership.

Third, greater domestic and global energy security will mean less reliance on states hostile to U.S. interests abroad. A low-carbon future that relies on new technologies developed in the United States could mean a global shift of power away from autocratic, unstable, conflict-torn states and a boost to U.S. competitiveness and technological leadership.

And fourth, the potential long-term dangers of climate change may be so severe that failing to take action now could pose a real security threat to the United States generations from now.

New Priorities

The good news is that we know what must be done. We believe that the following steps are essential to addressing the challenges before us. This is not an exhaustive list, but we do believe that bipartisan agreement can be reached on the need to accomplish these goals.

• Create a common set of facts and shared principles – Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Our national debate on energy and climate change is too often unproductive and focused on arguing the facts. A common set of agreed on “facts” and principles is the first step to bipartisan consensus. This will require the leaders in the Congress of both political parties to work with the president in agreeing on a hard, factual framework as the foundation for policy development.



• Establish a price on carbon – Pricing carbon is essential to transforming our energy system. Increasing numbers of companies, politicians, and academics alike agree on the importance of putting a price on carbon so that markets can respond to, produce, consume, and innovate our way to a low-carbon economy. It is far from clear, though, whether most Americans understand today what cap-and-trade or a carbon tax means or how either would work. Consequently, public education will be a leadership imperative.



• Drastically improve energy efficiency – The United States is home to roughly 5 percent of the world’s population, and yet we account for almost one quarter of total energy consumed (though we use it to generate almost 30 percent of global GDP). The United States should move aggressively to increase efficiency in the transportation sector and in industrial, commercial, and residential energy use. The greatest source of new energy is the energy we waste.


• Promote the development and use of clean coal technologies and practices– Coal provides half of the electricity consumed in the United States each day and is our most abundant fossil fuel. Coal is also a major contributor to climate change. Perfecting the technologies that will allow for clean coal use (more efficient power-generation technologies and carbon capture and storage) will not only help our energy security and climate change outlook in the United States but will also provide a clean energy solution for other major coal consumers like China and India. If our nation leads on clean coal research, development, and scalability, we can make a huge contribution to the world in dealing with both energy and climate issues.



• Enable a safe nuclear renaissance – Nuclear energy is a virtually emission-free source of electric power and is essential for meeting future energy needs. The federal government should enable an expanded role for civilian nuclear power by offering the financial backing via loan guarantees to deploy new reactors and stabilize the fuel cycle to guard against safety, security, waste, and proliferation concerns.



• Provide robust support for renewable energy – Renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar, biomass, hydropower, and geothermal provide increased supplies, greater diversity and emission reductions. Support for renewable energy technologies has traditionally been over timeframes that were too short to provide markets enough certainty to sustain meaningful investment. Renewable energy must be a larger part of the U.S. energy mix and supported through mandates, robust incentives, technology investment, and other policy support.



• Make a lasting commitment to federal research and development of energy technologies – The history of U.S. funding for energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment has been characterized by fits and starts. Meeting our energy and climate goals will require a substantial increase in funding and more consistency in federal research and development efforts.



• Modernize and expand the existing grid – The government and private sector must work in concert to modernize and expand the U.S. electric grid in order to continue providing reliable electricity services to U.S. citizens. “Smart grid” technologies and practices, along with additional transmission capacity, are key enabling technologies critical for realizing many of our other energy policy and technology goals, such as improving consumer efficiency, allowing for an expanded role for new technologies and fuels, and providing greater security for electricity supplies.



• Support domestic oil and natural gas production – In addition to expanding efficiency and the use of alternative fuels and managing the geopolitical factors affecting our energy imports, the administration and Congress should encourage the domestic production of oil and natural gas in environmentally sensitive ways to stem the decline in conventional production. This action will serve to further improve our energy security and reduce the overall level of imports.



• Ensure U.S. leadership and responsible international engagement – The United States plays an important role in energy markets. It is the world’s largest energy producer and largest energy consumer. It also the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Responsible global engagement on energy and climate issues requires the United States to be an active part of finding solutions. The United States must find willing partners to lead the type of energy transformation that will be required to bring about a secure low-carbon energy future. This means bringing China and India into the critical forums on energy and climate.

During the White Oak discussions a number of issues and ideas were tabled that are quite relevant to the current energy security and climate debate. Although we did not articulate detailed recommendations to address these items, we nonetheless feel that increasing the excise tax on motor fuels and exploring options for addressing a floor price for oil merit further analysis and discussion as we look for ways to enhance our security and reduce environmental damage. In particular there was considerable concern expressed for finding ways to ensure that energy prices provided the right incentives to promote investment in both conventional and alternative supplies as well as stimulate and sustain efforts to promote efficiency and conservation.

Making progress on energy and climate change will require greater public understanding of the challenges we face, the sacrifices that must be made, and the opportunities that lie ahead. Any new policy initiatives must be accompanied by a coordinated effort to communicate directly with the American public about the role they will play in helping to reach these goals.

Mr. President, we are pleased to submit these recommendations to you and to your administration for your consideration and review. We are also pleased and proud that so many of those who participated in our White Oak discussions have agreed to be included in the list of those who are in general agreement with what we have set forth. Both of us are at your service to discuss these issues at greater length.