Addiction Solution? Look to the States

Dan Seligman and Satya Rhodes-Conway have an editorial over at Tom Paine (interestingly titled Ground Control to Mr. President, which could really be recycled endlessly) on how individual states and several Senators are coming up with some good and interesting laws and bills that could point toward our nation's next steps in alternative fuel adoption/usage--but only if we have the political will to fund them:

In 2002, Minnesota enacted the nation’s first biodiesel mandate, requiring that nearly all diesel fuel sold in the state contain at least 2 percent biodiesel by 2005. Minnesota also recently adopted a mandate requiring all gasoline to contain 20 percent ethanol by 2013.

These are just a few of the examples that are documented in a new report issued by the Apollo Alliance. The report, called “New Energy for States ,” outlines the best state-based clean energy solutions the president can adopt nationally. We offer it to the president, along with our 10-point plan, as blueprint for ending our addiction to foreign oil.

Even if the president decides not to accept this offer, he has real policy alternatives already available in Congress. A bill offered by Sens. Lieberman, Brownback and Bayh would set us on a path toward reducing our oil imports by 10 million barrels per day. At the same time, the bill would preserve and create good jobs in the automotive and biofuels industries, thereby taking steps towards solving America’s fossil fuel addiction and creating new opportunities for working people. Last summer, Sen. Barack Obama offered another strategy. Obama introduced a bill that would achieve better fuel economy in vehicles while helping to relieve staggering legacy costs on American automakers, again attacking our oil problems while growing and industry that has been an engine of middle-class lives in America.

The concept of making a national commitment to energy independence is wildly popular to the American public. But a commitment implies investment, and marshalling all of the resources available to us to support a program that can achieve that goal. The president has recognized the problem. Will he do what it takes to fix it?