Renewable energy advocates were upbeat Thursday as they met in Washington, D.C. to discuss upcoming energy policies expected under a new Obama Administration.
"Candidate Obama made alternative energy a central part of his campaign," former Sen. Tom Daschle, now Obama's pick for Health and Human Services secretary, told the crowd at the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill. "It will soon be a new day for national climate and energy policy."
Daschle, from corn producing South Dakota, plugged corn-based ethanol, despite recent criticism that it drives up food prices and has minimal environmental benefit.
"Too many public interest and environmental groups have bought flawed information," he said. "The corn ethanol industry portrayed by snapshots of yesterday is a far cry from the corn ethanol industry of tomorrow."
To get to tomorrow, Daschle recommended a host of policy changes, including requiring a full calculation of a fuels' carbon footprint when applying for federal subsidies, a move presumably designed to close out opportunities for oil shale or liquid coal fuels, which are often criticized for being dirty.
Daschle also recommended removing the ethanol tariff, providing that certain safeguards remain in place. The current tariff acts to protect the domestic corn-based ethanol industry by keeping superior Brazilian sugar-based ethanol out of the country.
Not just a 'green' issue
Former Central Intelligence Agency chief James Woolsey made plain why he thinks the nation must move away from oil – namely, that it's a major national security threat.
Woolsey drew no punches in connecting financing for terrorist organizations to this nation's oil use, much of which the U.S. buys from Saudia Arabia.
"The odds are 9 in 10 that if you look at a madrasa in Pakistan that's teaching little boys to hate women and become suicide bombers, it's funded by the Saudis," he said. "So ultimately if you ask the question of who's responsible for teaching that boy, next time you pull into the gas station, tilt your rear view mirror and look into it."
Beware of cheap energy
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman implored incoming lawmakers to enact some form of pricing to spur development of renewable energy – ie, higher taxes on fossil fuels or attaching a price tag to costs not currently factored into their use – like paying for carbon dioxide emissions or military deployments in the Middle East.
"Without that price signal, even if GM makes more efficient cars, people aren't going to buy them," said Friedman. " That's what we have to insists from this next Congress and administration, even at the depths of this recession."
