Preface. Yikes!  These government plans from 2009 won’t help the energy crisis much!  I do like these ideas though:

• Get Yucca mountain ready to take nuclear waste. We need to sequester nuclear wastes while there is still energy to do so and not expose future generations for hundreds of thousands of years to radioactive materials.  
• IV. Reducing demand for oil: improving efficiency A. Aggressively implement fuel-economy standards established in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA).  

But electrify transportation and enhancing the national electric system?  I explain why that won’t work in “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”. Worst of all is enhancing the biofuels system because the energy return is negative and destroys ecosystems, topsoil, drains aquifers, and poisons the land, air, and water with pesticides, and much more — covered at great length in of “Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy”.

Many items in ”Increasing energy access: expanding domestic supply” won’t work. Oil shale, methane hydrates, and coal to liquids are far from commercial and have a negative energy return, and don’t substitute for diesel.  Nor will methane hydrates see post “Why we aren’t mining methane hydrates now – or perhaps ever”.  

Nor will the arctic and Alaskan oil / coal / natural gas be exploited because icebergs will knock out offshore drills and permafrost will buckle roads and topple drills, bridges, and buildings (see arctic oil posts here).

The section “V. Managing risks and global issues” scares me. Sounds like there will be more wars in the Middle East over oil.

And nothing mentioned at all about how to keep trucks running.  If there are plans to cope with the coming energy crisis, perhaps they are classified at Homeland Security or some other agency.

Alice Friedemann  www.energyskeptic.com  Author of Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy; When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, Barriers to Making Algal Biofuels, & “Crunch! Whole Grain Artisan Chips and Crackers”.  Women in ecology  Podcasts: WGBH, Jore, Planet: Critical, Crazy Town, Collapse Chronicles, Derrick Jensen, Practical Prepping, Kunstler 253 &278, Peak Prosperity,  Index of best energyskeptic posts

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Senate Hearing 111-2 (2009) Testimony on Current Energy Security Challenges. Hearing before the committee on energy and natural resources. U.S. Senate. 

The Oil Dependence Crisis

Oil is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy, providing nearly 40 percent of our primary energy needs, more than any other fuel.  Within the transportation sector, petroleum fuels account for 93 percent of delivered energy, and there are currently no substitutes available at scale.  This severe oil dependence ties the fate of our economy to the global oil market—and jeopardizes both our national security and economic prosperity as a result.

Outline of the energy security leadership council’s national strategy for energy security: Recommendations to the nation on reducing U.S. Oil Dependence

I. Diversify energy supplies for the transportation sector

A. Electrification of the transportation sector

1. Establish development of advanced battery technology as a top research priority and spend at least $500 million per year toward their development.

2. Replace existing vehicle tax credits with new tax credits of up to $8,000 per vehicle for the first two million domestically produced highly efficient vehicles.

3. Federal government should help create a market and exercise leadership by purchasing highly efficient vehicles.

4. Establish production tax incentives to aid in the retooling of U.S. vehicles manufacturing facilities and to create and maintain a domestic capacity to manufacture advanced batteries.

5. To encourage business participation, extend and modify federal subsidies for hybrid medium-duty vehicles (Classes 3–6) and heavy-duty vehicles (Classes 7–8) to 2012 and remove the cap on the number of eligible vehicles.

6. Grants to municipalities and tax credits to commercial real estate developers to encourage the installation of public recharging stations.

B. Enhancing the nation’s electrical system

a. Increasing Nuclear Power Generation and Addressing Waste Storage

1. Continue licensing process for Yucca Mountain while initiating a program of interim storage as an alternative to Yucca Mountain.

2. Extend the deadline and increase the funding levels for loan guarantees for new nuclear generation.

b. Deploying Advanced Coal Technology

1. Significantly increase investment in advanced coal R&D including development of carbon capture and storage technology and policy frame-work.

2. Increase funding for loan guarantees for advanced coal generation.

c. Promoting Renewable Energy

1. Reform and extend the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) through December 31, 2013, while providing certain guidance for the transition to a fundamentally improved, next-generation incentives program.

d. Development of a Robust Transmission Grid to Move Power to Where It is Needed

1. Extend backup federal eminent domain for transmission lines to help expand the use of renewable power and to enhance reliability by moving power from surplus to deficit regions.

2. Require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to approve enhanced rates of return on investments to modernize electrical grid system.

e. Transforming Consumer Demand for Electricity

1. Direct states to implement time of day pricing for electricity, and grant FERC backstop authority to implement time-of-day pricing if states will not.

2. Require utilities to install smart meters for all new installations after a specified date.

C. Reforming the biofuels program

a. Shift focus of biofuels deployment by concentrating on R&D and commercialization efforts on next-generation biofuels, fostering competition among fuels derived from differing feedstocks.

b. Require increasing production of Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs).

c. Accelerate Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency testing and performance validation of unmodified gasoline engines running on intermediate-levels, first- and second generation biofuels blends.

d. Replace the 45-cents-per-gallon ethanol tax credit with a ‘smart subsidy’.

e. Eliminate tariffs on imported ethanol over a period of three years.

II. Increasing energy access: expanding domestic supply

A. Target federal policy and resources to encourage the expanded use of

carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery.

B. Support federal investment in technologies that can limit the adverse environmental impacts of oil shale and coal-to-liquids (CTL) production toensure long-term viability before undertaking public investment in production.

C. Increase access to U.S. oil and natural gas reserves on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) with sharply increased and expanded environmental protections.

D. Increase access to U.S. resources in the Arctic and Alaska.

E. Federal support for construction of a natural gas pipeline from Alaska to the continental United States.

F. Expand federal R&D initiatives studying the opportunities to exploit methane hydrates, including the initiation of small-scale production tests.

III. Accelerating the development and deployment of new energy-related technology

A. Annual public investment in energy R&D should be increased by roughly an order of magnitude to approximately $30 billion.

B. Reform the existing institutions and processes governing federal R&D spending.

C. Develop a more effective federal R&D investment strategy.

D. Establish new institutions to provide funding for early-stage R&D and for later-stage deployment and commercialization.

E. Invest in the next-generation workforce for the energy industry.

IV. Reducing demand for oil: improving efficiency

A. Aggressively implement fuel-economy standards established in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA).

B. Increase allowable weight to 97,000 lbs. gross vehicle weight for tractor-trailer trucks that have a supplementary sixth axle installed but which replicate current stopping distances and do not fundamentally alter current truck architecture. In addition, government should study further the safety impacts of significantly longer and heavier tractor-trailers used in conjunction with slower speed limits.

C. Require the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to implement and fund improvements to commercial air-traffic routing in order to increase safety and decrease fuel consumption.

V. Managing risks and global issues

A. Direct the Department of Energy to develop workable guidelines for the use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and evaluate its proper size based on those criteria.

B. Work with foreign governments to eliminate fuel subsidies.

C. Promote a robust China-U.S. partnership on carbon capture and storage that focuses on private-sector collaboration and sharing of best practices.

D. Establish a National Energy Council at the White House to coordinate the development of the nation’s energy policy and to advise the president with regard to energy policy.

E. The National Intelligence Council should complete a comprehensive National Intelligence Estimate on energy security that assesses the most vulnerable aspects of the infrastructure critical to delivering global energy supplies and the future stability of major energy suppliers.

F. Working with the Department of State, the Department of Justice should bolster programs designed to train national police and security forces to defend and secure energy infrastructure in key countries.

G. As called for in its recent Maritime Strategy, the U.S. Navy should leverage the maritime forces of other countries to provide protection against terrorists and pirates for oil tankers in vulnerable regions.

H. The Department of Defense should engage NATO and other allies in focused negotiations with the intention of creating an architecture that improves the security of key strategic terrain.

I. The intelligence community should bolster collection and analysis capabilities on potential strategic conflicts that could disrupt key energy supplies. The State Department should improve its capacity to intervene diplomatically in conflicts that impact U.S. energy security.

J. The intelligence community should expand the collection of intelligence on national oil companies and their energy reserves in order to allow policy-makers to make better decisions about future alliances and the nation’s strategic posture on energy suppliers.

The Energy Security Leadership Council (ESLC) brings together some of America’s most prominent business and military leaders to support a comprehensive, long-term policy to reduce U.S. oil dependence and improve energy security.  

Corporate members include:

• Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President, and CEO of FedEx Corporation
• David Steiner, CEO of Waste Management
• Jeffrey Sprecher. chairman New York Stock Exchange & Intercontinental exchange
• Herbert Kelleher, Chairman and founder of Southwest Airlines
• Eric Schwartz  Goldman Sachs asset management
• Military members include:
• John Lehman former secretary of the U.S. Navy
• General James Conway (Ret.), former Marine Corps Commandant,
• General P.X. Kelley (Ret.), former Marine Corps Commandant and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
• General John Handy, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
• General John Keane, U.S. Army (Ret.)