Nation Needs a Strategy to Secure Supplies

By Thomas J. Donohue, President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

As the summer driving season gears up, gasoline prices are once again headed upward, pinching the pocketbooks of consumers and small business owners. Our nation continues on a high-speed roller coaster of energy price spikes and declines. 

What are the causes of the volatile energy market in the United States? First, foreign energy supplies are increasingly vulnerable to the actions of unfriendly governments and non-state actors, such as terrorists. Second, global energy demand is growing dramatically, spurred by such fast-growing economies as China and India. By the year 2030, the world's energy needs will increase by an estimated 70%.

So how should the United States respond to these challenges? We need to step up our domestic energy conservation and efficiency efforts; increase domestic production of all energy sources, including alternative fuels; and expand and modernize energy infrastructures-all while managing as best as possible global climate change. We must also work to protect energy supplies overseas in collaboration with our friends and allies by protecting key energy infrastructures, discouraging the use of energy as a political and economic weapon, and promoting political stability in friendly regimes.

Many politicians pay lip service to "energy independence," but their actions say differently. It's time to move away from an energy policy shaped by complacency, ignorance, contradictions, and politics toward one based on economic reality and national security.