home > by publication type > daily analysis > A Fight over Energy
Email
| Author: |
|---|
A motorist buys gasoline in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago on Wednesday, April 30. (AP/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Each uptick in prices at U.S. gasoline pumps seems to heighten the importance of energy as an election-year issue. Polls reflect widespread concerns about hardship caused by rising gas prices. On a broader scale, a new report by the Confidence in U.S. Foreign Policy Index found surging worries about the implications of the cost of energy for foreign policy (PDF). The report, conducted by Public Agenda and Foreign Affairs, found six out of ten Americans believe reducing energy dependence would strengthen national security “a great deal.” So with gas prices nationally averaging about $3.60 per gallon, it was not a surprise to find presidential aspirants in the past few weeks seizing on the issue. But the debate so far has met with moans from many policy analysts looking for far-reaching solutions to the country’s energy problems.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the presumptive Republican nominee, has proposed suspending the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon from the summer driving period between Memorial Day and Labor Day, saying he wanted to give low-income Americans “a little break” (PhillyInquirer). Campaigning ahead of crucial May 6 Democratic primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) endorsed the idea, saying it could be paid for through windfall taxes on oil companies. Her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), criticized it as bad policy. There was no immediate indication how energy issues figured in the voting, in which Obama won North Carolina by a wide margin and Clinton looked to be headed for a narrower victory in Indiana (IndyStar). Obama was on course to retain the overall lead in delegates. The results in both states ended up following a nationwide pattern for the Democratic primaries, with the economy again by far the most important issue for voters in both Indiana (CNN) and North Carolina (CNN), according to exit polls on May 6.
Prior to the latest primaries, the gas-tax-holiday plans found critics in many corners, including in op-ed pages, among economists, and in the halls of Congress (WashPost). New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman went so far as to call it “money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks.” Asked about the proposal, President Bush said his office will “look at any idea in terms of energy” but he emphasized the importance of Congress opening up domestic sites like the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration. Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson agrees, citing estimates of vast reserves domestically that could be extracted safely and in environmentally sensitive ways.
In some ways the Washington energy policy debate appears stalled again, with one side insisting on boosting fossil-fuel resources and the other seeking to put more emphasis on spurring alternatives. But by the end of last year there seemed to be momentum among lawmakers for a new approach to energy problems beyond a policy described by the Wall Street Journal as “enjoy cheap oil.” The Energy Independence and Security Act, signed by Bush in December, called for changing vehicle fuel-efficiency standards for the first time in a generation and mandated a fivefold increase in biofuels production—to 36 billion gallons—by 2022. For much of the presidential campaign, Clinton, Obama, and McCain, have been calling to further shake up the status quo on U.S. policies related to energy and climate change. McCain even spoke out against ethanol subsidies in the corn hub of Iowa before that state’s caucuses. But few on the campaign trail or in Congress have been calling for immediate sacrifices by Americans, whose gasoline use continued to increase monthly through March 2008 (PDF) despite rising prices.
Other matters may intrude on the way the country uses energy. For one, the sharp rise in food prices has some in Congress talking about reconsidering the new ethanol production mandates, because of their heavy reliance on corn (The Hill). And infrastructure demands may increase pressure for higher federal gas taxes to build up crumbling roadways (Those taxes provide a major chunk of state funding for road projects). Land use planners have been urging for years an improved mechanism for funding upgrades to the country’s transportation infrastructure. A 2007 report by the Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young cites a “deferred maintenance crisis” (PDF) and projects “enormous and ominous” funding gaps for U.S. infrastructure.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
The report of this bipartisan Task Force of distinguished leaders and experts represents a strong consensus on the importance of repairing America's immigration policy. It makes the case that maintaining America's political and economic leadership depends on attracting talented and hard-working immigrants, and on securing the country's borders in a smart, effective, and humane way.
This report finds that nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security in the near term, and makes recommendations on how to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. deterrent nuclear force, prevent nuclear terrorism, and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR
Complete list of Task Force reports
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
To request permission to reprint or reuse CFR material, please fill out this permissions request form (PDF), referring to the instructions on page 1.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.