Outlines 13 Principles for Change

More nuclear power plants, like the one that the Chamber's Tom Donohue (center) and Karen Harbert toured in Louisiana, are needed to secure our energy future.

Against a backdrop of soaring energy prices and a vigorous debate on climate change policy, the U.S. Chamber is working to focus the nation's attention on expanding domestic energy supplies while constructively addressing the issue of carbon emissions.

The Chamber and its Institute for 21st Century Energy have taken a major step forward by unveiling 13 key principles necessary for creating a new, affordable, and reliable energy future for the country. A bipartisan group of former administration officials and policymakers are expected to endorse the key principles at a July 16 event.

The Institute will follow up with a summary of policy recommendations and a complete energy policy blueprint later this year.  Here are the Chamber's 13 principles for a new energy future:

• Accelerate energy efficiency improvements. The Institute calls for an expansion of voluntary, mandatory, and fiscal incentives that reward efficiency, especially for utilities and their customers.
• Reduce the environmental impact of energy consumption. Any approach for addressing the impact of energy consumption on the environment and climate must be both economically viable and environmentally effective. The United States must not set targets for which technology does not yet exist.
• Invest in climate science to guide energy, economic, and environmental policy. Balancing these important goals will require a greater understanding of the processes driving climate change and increased attention to proactive measures to help adapt to changes.
• Significantly increase funding for advanced clean energy technologies. The United States spends more in three days on imported oil than it does in a year on clean energy. The demonstration and application of promising clean technologies must be carried out on an ambitious scale.
• Expand domestic oil and gas production. Access to more than 80% of the undiscovered resources beneath U.S. federal lands and coastal waters is currently off limits, requiring America to import more than half of its energy from overseas.
• Dramatically expand nuclear energy use. As an emissions-free source of 20% of America's electricity supply, nuclear power is essential to meet growing demand while mitigating emissions of CO2.
• Commit to the use of clean coal. There must be greater focus on increasing research, development, and demonstration of clean coal and carbon capture and sequestration technologies in order for us to best utilize our nation's 250-year supply of coal.
• Increase renewable sources of electricity. New investments in solar, wind, and other technologies will be critical to meet growing demand and address environmental concerns.
• Transform the transportation sector. New and existing technologies including second generation, non-food-based biofuels, plug-in hybrids, and more efficient engines must become affordable and commonplace if they are to succeed.
• Reduce overly burdensome regulation and opportunities for frivolous litigation. Regulatory uncertainty and liability issues have discouraged the development of new nuclear and coal-fired power plants, wind projects, and natural gas terminals.
• Modernize and protect U.S. energy infrastructure. Difficulty in locating, permitting, and building new facilities increases America's vulnerability to blackouts and brownouts.
• Address critical shortages of qualified energy professionals. Our nation needs to continue to lead the world in education, training programs, and incentives to attract and retain a new generation of skilled workers.
• Exert global leadership to meet the twin challenges of energy security and climate change. Open markets and expanded trade are necessary to ensure the free flow of energy products and clean technologies, and the United States must lead the way on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol that includes all CO2 emitting economies.
   

Please go to www.energyxxi.org/ to learn more.