Strategic energy policy

There could be more Californias in America's future unless the U.S. government adopts a long-term, comprehensive energy policy now, according to an Independent Task Force report cosponsored by the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University in Houston and the Council on Foreign Relations. Given the capital-intensive nature of the energy industry, such energy woes could worsen before they get better, the study notes. Americans should therefore brace themselves for more California-style electricity problems and seasonal shortfalls of natural gas and heating fuels, as well as occasional spikes in regional gasoline prices. The experts note, however, that the situation is not a sign that the world is running out of energy resources. Rather, the conditions are caused by chronic under-investment and soaring energy use. The report, signed by fifty-one experts with widely different backgrounds and perspectives on the problem, argues that President G.W. Bush has an opportunity to begin educating the public about this reality and to start building a broad base of popular support for the hard policy choices ahead. It warns that the United States now faces the consequences of not having had an energy policy over the last several decades. The report of the Task Force, chaired by Edward L. Morse, a widely recognized authority on energy at Hess Energy, and assisted by Amy Myers Jaffe of the Baker Institute, concludes that "there are no overnight solutions to the energy supply and infrastructure bottlenecks facing the nation and the world." The Task Force report warns that what lies ahead are agonizing policy tradeoffs between legitimate and competing interests. Among those tradeoffs, the report states, is whether Americans are willing to compromise their hunger for cheap energy to satisfy their increasing demand for cleaner energy and a cleaner environment.