Oilman T. Boone Pickens said it best about our energy crisis: "This is one emergency we can't drill our way out of."
High fuel prices, a worsening economy, a warming climate and foreign relations complicated by America's addiction to oil all cry out for something more than more of the same. Moving Alaska and America to a clean-energy future is a good place to start.
Imagine a world where everyone can plug their car (their whole car -- not just the block heater) into the same outlet they use to charge their cell phones.
Imagine heating and cooling our homes not with expensive gas or oil but with geothermal energy piped in from Alaska's volcanoes.
Imagine flipping on the television and knowing the big game was being brought to you by cheap, clean electricity generated from wind power and not from dirty coal.
That's the near future, if we want it.
Good examples of this future abound here in Alaska, where we enjoy world-class renewable energy resources. Several rural Alaska communities already use wind energy to displace diesel fuel. The Legislature jump-started a 50-100 megawatt wind project at Fire Island with a $25 million investment this spring. Two companies are already exploring the geothermal resource at Mount Spurr. They spent $3.5 million on leases there earlier this month. Another will soon install a pilot tidal power project in Knik Arm. Hydroelectric resources are also plentiful and already supply a significant share of the state's energy.
All of these renewable energy technologies are part of a solution that will free us from our addiction to fossil fuels, reduce our energy bills, recharge America's economy, create good paying jobs, and solve the climate crisis.
Congress can help lead a clean energy revolution and develop "Made-in-America" solutions.
Instead of handing billions of dollars in subsidies to an oil and gas industry already flush with billions in record profits, Congress should use that money to promote clean, renewable energy and extend clean energy tax credits to the wind and solar industries. These tax credits would help build an industry that in 2006 generated 8.5 million jobs and nearly $970 billion in revenue in America.
Many members of Congress agree. Legislation promoting renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and geothermal has passed the House again and again, only to fall short each time in the Senate, once by just a single vote. Renewable energy deserves congressional support.
Passing comprehensive, cap-and-trade-based climate change legislation is another part of the clean energy revolution. The Climate Security Act, which gained 54 supporters in the Senate this past spring, would reduce our oil imports and save Americans $180 billion through the year 2030 on foreign oil expenditures alone, according to the Department of Energy.
Instead of chasing the last barrel of oil, we need to demand a new energy economy that reduces dependency on expensive fossil fuels. American families deserve a consumer-friendly, clean energy policy that invests in renewable energy and energy conservation. It makes sense; it is in our reach. Alaska, with renewable energy resources second to none, can help lead the way.
Jim Adams is director of the Alaska Office of the National Wildlife Federation.
By JIM ADAMS