Washington, DC - In a speech today sponsored by the Center for National Policy, Senator John F. Kerry (D-MA) offered an alternative vision for America's energy security:

"As we have turned the corner of a millennium and century, we have urgent reasons to be serious about our energy future - and we have an extraordinary opportunity today to begin a new era in which our conception of how energy is produced, used and conserved is transformed.

"Common sense tells us that the policies that made us dependent on foreign oil - however repackaged in the mantle of patriotism - will only keep us dependent on foreign oil. If we enact the entire Bush energy plan we will find ourselves twenty years from now more dependent on foreign oil than we are today. The Administration has not offered an agenda for energy independence. It has offered an agenda that evades the tough questions -- provided blinders where we need magnifying glasses -- and slogans in the place of genuine leadership. "The Administration sees a world where our principal effort is to drill our way out of our problem while alternative, renewable fuels and technologies rise or fall on their own at the margins no matter what compelling reasons exist to behave differently. I see a world, where even as we drill because it makes economic sense and we have to, our primary focus shifts to cajoling and exciting a new market place for those alternative and renewable energy sources because there are compelling reasons to do so.

"Energy security is American security. Our policy must reflect that we live in one world, not four or five separate ones and we need an energy policy of national purpose that confronts the hard realities and sets real priorities based on the needs of all Americans. There is no question that if we remain complacent one day those dangers will force us to act. We owe it to ourselves and to our children to acknowledge and address them now, while we can still maximize the benefits.

"And the most responsible thing we can do is to tap America's strength's, our markets, our ingenuity, our invention, our innovation and, most importantly, our values to control our destiny and begin a long evolution to an energy world that benefits our security, our economy and our environment."

In the speech, Kerry advocates a Strategic Energy Initiative that will deliver real energy security by initiating a transition in America from our heavy dependence on polluting and insecure fossil fuels to more efficient, clean, domestic and reliable energy. The plan calls for establishing targets and providing incentives, maximizes private sector opportunities and avoids the mistake of command and control. Kerry called for a national goal of producing 20 percent of our electricity from renewable energy by 2020; raising standards and providing tax incentives for fuel efficient cars and trucks; raising standards and providing tax incentives for efficient homes and businesses; investing in public transportation; setting a national goal for the production of domestic biofuels; and investing in the development of fuel cell technologies. Senator Kerry has been a leading opponent of proposals to destroy the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, arguing that drilling in ANWR will not reduce dependence on foreign oil. Later this week, Kerry will chair hearings this week in the Senate Commerce Committee on fuel efficiency standards.