The Presidential Debate Series-An Energy Question for the Second Presidential Debate
President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney will engage in the second round of the Presidential Debates tonight on the Hofstra University campus in Long Island, New York. The second debate will focus on a variety of domestic and foreign issues of concern to undecided voters, including, we here at ASP hope, questions on energy. With questions on the economy taking up the majority of the first Presidential debate clock, moderator Candy Crowley, or the audience, should ask at least one tough question on energy; an issue of both domestic and foreign importance.
An undecided voter at tonight’s town-hall debate should ask the candidates the following question:
“This year, the Pew Environmental Group released a study reporting that the United States led the world in clean energy investment in 2011, while the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) predicted that 80% of U.S. electricity could be generated from renewable resources by 2050. However, the U.S. still trails nations such as China in terms of installed renewable energy capacity, according to the Pew study, and great infrastructural change will be needed if we are to ever come close to achieving NREL’s forecast. Each of you have announced an “all of the above” energy policy, which implies that renewable energy would be a part of your administration’s energy priorities. This begs the question: As president, what would you do to translate our investments in clean energy into tangible results and benefits for the American people? How would your administration enable America to better compete against renewable industries in China and elsewhere?”
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 the United States should diversify its energy supplies and increase its annual investment in research and development of clean energy, including nuclear power, fusion energy and renewables. We also believe that an economy that relies on renewable power for its energy needs will be able to manage its foreign policy independently of how it utilizes energy.
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 increase the nation’s energy competitiveness. We here at ASP hope this topic will be discussed tonight.
