US faces 'serious problem' unless oil use is curbed, says ex-energy official
Washington - June 26, 2010
Also on Platts Energy Week: New techno, fin. reform & climate chg updates
The United States will face "a serious energy problem" unless it substantially reduces its reliance on oil for transportation, James Schlesinger, the nation's first energy secretary, said Sunday on the all-energy news, issues and policy television program Platts Energy Week .
Schlesinger stressed that the United States should make reducing oil imports its leading energy goal, as did former President Jimmy Carter, who nominated him for energy secretary in 1978.
“Unless we are prepared to make sacrifices, we are going to have a serious energy problem. At some point we will reach a plateau in terms of our production worldwide of oil. And then dependence, if it continues, on the internal combustion engine is going to be a very great blow to the United States," Schlesinger said.
"We have got to reduce our consumption of oil," he added.
While both Carter and President Barack Obama view U.S. energy security as an urgent matter, the two leaders' approaches to the issue differ, Schlesinger said.
"The underlying motive has changed," the former energy secretary explained. "In those days, we were interested in reducing oil imports, period. Now, we are interested primarily – or at least the administration is interested – in reducing greenhouse gases."
Schlesinger suggested Obama's priorities are misplaced. "I think the energy problem is much more serious than is the problem of global warming," he said.
The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which has prompted the Obama administration to suspend drilling in the region, will only exacerbate the U.S. dependence on foreign oil, Schlesinger said.
"It's a serious setback," he lamented. "It means that we are going to be producing less oil. That means greater imports; that means greater expenditures for foreign oil."
Schlesinger, who also served as defense secretary and CIA director during the Nixon and Ford administrations, is now the chairman of the board of trustees for Mitre, a non-profit operator of federally funded research and development centers. Click here to watch the full interview with James Schlesinger.
Platts Energy Week host Bill Loveless is the long-time chief editor of Inside Energy, who brings nearly three decades of energy journalism experience to the anchor chair. Later in the program, Bill Loveless led a panel review of how the new financial reform legislation may affect energy. Click here to view the panel discussion by Dan Dolan, vice president of policy research and communications at the Electric Power Supply Association, and Sean Cota, president of the independent oil trading company, Cota Oil.
Sunday’s Platts Energy Week also featured an interview with Arum Majumdar, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency at the U.S. Department of Energy, on new funding for high-risk but potentially high-payoff energy technologies. And Rod Kuckro, chief editor of Electric Power Daily discussed with host Bill Loveless, the details of deliberations and status of climate-change legislation before the U.S. Senate.
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