Our future is renewable Clean energy to replace foreign oil tops U.S. security challenges

By Sen. Ken Salazar

Published December 1, 2007 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Javier Manzano / The Rocky

Sen. Ken Salazar speaks about biorefining and biofuel at a news conference at the Capitol in downtown Denver in March. Salazar says Colorado is leading the way toward energy diversification with a renewable-energy revolution that is creating new markets and opportunities.

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Today, with oil climbing toward $100 a barrel, we are witnessing one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history. Oil consumers - from the farmer in the San Luis Valley whose diesel bill will reach $10,000 this year to the driver in Denver who is paying $70 to fill the tank - are paying almost $5 billion more every day for oil than they did five years ago. Revenues for oil-producing states and oil companies - primarily oil companies controlled by foreign governments - will reach $2 trillion this year.

The massive transfer of oil wealth that is under way - and to which we contribute by importing 60 percent of our oil - is having dangerous effects on our national security and is eroding our influence in the world:

* Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is using petrol profits from the Iranian National Oil Co. to prop up political support at home and withstand American sanctions aimed at preventing the development of nuclear weapons.

* The Sudanese are using their oil riches to build skyscrapers and five-star luxury hotels in Khartoum while thousands upon thousands are dying in the western region of Darfur.

* The citizens who live in countries floating in this wealth often find that oil to be a curse. They are more likely to have corrupt leadership, rigged elections and weak human rights protections.

For those countries like the United States that are overly dependent on foreign oil, increased competition and dwindling resources are making us more reliant on countries that are struggling with political turmoil, ethnic or religious strife, or terrorism.

* Al-Qaida has threatened to strike what Osama bin Laden calls the "hinges" of the world's economy, meaning infrastructure like pipelines or shipping lanes.

We deploy our Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines around the world so that commerce may proceed unharmed. But the mission, of course, is not free. It keeps our service members away from their families, and it costs the taxpayer billions of dollars.

How then do we secure the energy we need for our prosperity while protecting our national security? The question is not a new one.

Winston Churchill, in contemplating how to keep the British Navy supplied with Middle Eastern oil before World War I, came to this conclusion: "Safety and certainty in oil," he said, "lie in variety, and variety alone."

Churchill was right. American energy security demands that we broaden our list of suppliers of oil. But diversifying our supply also means that we must expand our supply of energy sources that can substitute for oil.

Colorado is leading the way toward energy diversification with a renewable-energy revolution that we sparked in just two years:

* In Weld, Logan and Yuma counties, we are seeing biofuel plants spring to life, creating new markets and new opportunities for our rural communities.

* In the San Luis Valley, Xcel Energy just broke ground on the largest solar plant in North America.

* We are adding more than 775 megawatts of wind power in Colorado this year, more than tripling the state's production.

Around the state and across the country, the seeds of a clean-energy revolution are sprouting. Washington, slowly but surely, is beginning to take notice.

The renewable-energy bill that cleared the Senate this year included an amendment I added that enables the United States to meet 25 percent of its energy needs from renewable resources by 2025. The bill makes long-overdue increases to vehicle- efficiency standards because transportation accounts for two-thirds of our oil consumption. The bill also quintuples the existing renewable-fuels standard to 36 billion gallons by 2022, enough to offset our imports from Saudia Arabia, Iraq and Libya combined.

The farm bill, which includes a robust energy title, will further strengthen our renewable-energy infrastructure, as will a package of clean energy tax incentives, which I helped craft in the Senate Finance Committee.

These are vital bills on an agenda that supersedes party and ideology. Building a clean-energy future, in my view, is the central national security, environmental security and economic security challenge of our time. It is neither a Democratic nor a Republican issue. It is not liberal or conservative. It is an American imperative whose time has come.

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