Sen Lugar Says Imported Oil Makes U.S. Vulnerable; Outlines Energy Program [View All]

[Barrett808]

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Aug. 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- The comments below were made today (Tuesday, Aug. 29) at the Sen. Richard G. Lugar - Purdue University Summit on Energy Security. The summit drew more than 600 leaders to the Purdue campus in West Lafayette, Ind. to discuss national energy issues and policy. A goal of the summit is to discuss ways to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil and to develop new strategies for alternative fuels. Among those joining Sen. Lugar, R-Ind. for the daylong event include Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Purdue President Martin C. Jischke and U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind. The summit also includes a panel discussion, "Implementing Strategies to Reduce Foreign Oil Dependence." Panelists include Sue Cischke, Ford Motor Co. vice president; Carol Battershell, vice president for alternative energy for BP Inc.; and Amy Myers Jaffe, Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University. Brian Lamb, president and CEO of C-SPAN, will serve as panel moderator.

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In the keynote address this morning to the Richard G. Lugar-Purdue University Summit on Energy Security, at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar calls for dramatic and immediate action to address U.S. energy vulnerability.

"Neither American oil companies, nor American car companies have shown an inclination to dramatically transform their businesses in ways that will achieve the degree of change we need to address a national security emergency," Lugar says in the address. "Most importantly, the federal government is not treating energy vulnerability as a crisis, despite an increase in energy related proposals."

"To this end, the United States should adopt a national program that would make virtually every new car sold in America a flexible fuel vehicle. We should ensure that at least one quarter of filling stations in America have E85 pumps. We should expand ethanol production to 100 billion gallons a year by 2025, a figure that could be achieved by doubling output every five years. We should also create an approximate $45 per barrel price floor on oil through a variable ethanol tax credit to ensure that investments keep flowing to alternatives. And we should enact stricter vehicle mileage standards to point automobile innovation toward conservation. The plan I am proposing today would achieve the replacement of 6.5 million barrels of oil per day by volume - the rough equivalent of one third of the oil used in America and one half of our current oil imports," he says.

"Our failure to act will be all the more unconscionable given that success would bring not only relief from the geopolitical threats of energy-rich regimes, but also restorative economic benefits to our farmers, rural areas, automobile manufacturers, high technology industries, and many others," concludes Lugar. "We must be very clear that this is a political problem. We now have the financial resources, the industrial might, and the technological prowess to shift our economy away from oil dependence. What we are lacking is coordination and political will. We have made choices, as a society, which have given oil a near monopoly on American transportation. Now we must make a different choice in the interest of American national security and our economic future."

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Below is the full text of the speech:

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