There are few issues
as far-reaching as energy. Every day, American families and
businesses need reliable and affordable energy to power our
homes, cars, schools, stores, factories and offices. Energy is
important to our economy, our prosperity and our way of life.
Unfortunately, energy production and consumption can
degrade our air, land and water and deplete finite resources.
And every day, American service men and women put their lives
on the line overseas to ensure that oil can flow from the
Middle East, Africa and elsewhere to the corner filling
stations here in America. For these reasons, decisions we make
today will greatly touch our economy, environment and security
for generations.
This is why I feel so strongly that America must promote a
balanced energy policy that transitions the nation from our
heavy dependence on polluting, and sometimes insecure, fossil
fuels to more efficient, clean and reliable energy. The key to
this transition is technology. With leadership from the
federal government, America can significantly increase the use
of renewable energy, such as wind, solar, geothermal and
biomass to generate electricity. We can build more efficient
cars, saving more than 2 million barrels of oil each day in
the coming decades. We can develop alternatives to oil to
power transportation from increased use of natural gas to
bio-fuels. We can construct a modern transportation
infrastructure to reduce oil consumption, especially our
passenger rail service for urban and suburban commuters.
I believe that such a national strategy would strengthen
America. It would reduce the pollution connected with asthma,
lung cancer and heart disease. It would reduce the pollution
associated with global warming. It would strengthen our
national security by lessening our dependence on oil and our
vulnerability to imported oil. Instead of sending American
dollars overseas, we’d be investing in American farmers
producing bio-diesel, American workers building more efficient
cars. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of
jobs to be created in the design, manufacture, refining and
distribution of domestic, renewable energy.
It is time for America to become proactive and innovative
in finding solutions to our energy concerns. I am committed to
this effort, and I hope that you will join me in supporting a
balanced energy policy toward energy security.
Read What Newspapers Are Saying About Kerry's
Efforts to Reduce America's Dependence on Foreign Oil
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