The Presidential Debate Series – An Energy Question for the First Presidential Debate
With tonight’s Presidential debate focused on domestic policy, Jim Lehrer, the debate’s moderator, announced that his questioning will focus on the economy. Considering the critical energy challenges facing the next administration, Jim Lehrer should force the candidates to face tough questions on energy. The campaigns thus far have lacked a substantive discussion of energy policy, but tonight’s debate is an opportunity for each candidate to offer their vision for America’s energy future.
Moderator Jim Lehrer should ask the candidates the following question:
Given that both of you have staunchly advocated for American energy independence, investment in new sources of energy would be needed. Both of you have advocated an “all-of-the-above” strategy to energy development, which includes fossil fuels, nuclear power, and renewable energy. Prices for renewable energy sources, in particular, have dropped rapidly, but are still not yet cost-competitive with fossil fuels. As President, how would you prioritize government support for energy technologies? Would you prioritize renewable energy, and if so, what specific policies would you pursue to spur their development?
We won’t go into details about what we believe the candidates’ answers will or should be, but we do think this is an important issue to be discussed.
ASP believes that our dependence on oil in the transportation sector weakens our national security by forcing us to become entangled in unstable regions of the world while leaving our economy vulnerable to dramatic price swings. To address these concerns, we believe that the United States should diversify its energy supplies and double its annual investment in research and development of clean energy, including nuclear power, fusion energy and renewables, particularly biofuels, wind, and solar.
The next President needs to address long-term energy security. Not only does our reliance upon fossil fuels make us vulnerable to market shocks and supply disruptions, but the burning of fossil fuels also contribute to climate change, which ASP believes is a national security threat
Regardless of who wins the election, the next president will need to clearly lay out a vision on how he will transform our energy mix, bring new clean energy technologies to market, and reduce the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels. We here at ASP hope this topic will be discussed tonight.
