Energy

With the price of a gallon of gas near $4 per gallon, worldwide concerns about the safety of nuclear energy, the recent anniversary of the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, American soldiers still fighting in Iraq, and widespread unrest in the Middle East, our nation desperately needs to pursue a new approach to provide clean, domestic sources of energy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We need to move from a 20^th century energy system too dependent on mid-east fossil fuels, to a 21^st century approach that utilizes conservation, leverages our abundant supplies of natural gas, promotes communities designed to encourage people to walk and commute by bicycle, improves mass transit, and embraces clean, renewable, alternative energy sources from wind, solar and bio-fuels.

Alan’s leadership will help Massachusetts continue to be a role model in the clean energy field and his bold ideas will help the U.S. compete globally with Germany and China to recruit the next generation of manufacturing jobs here in our backyard. Innovative policy makers and gutsy entrepreneurs in the Commonwealth have set the bar high, attracting the attention of lawmakers in Washington and private funders across the country. Reputable Massachusetts companies, projects, and policies include The Green Communities Act, the Renewable Portfolio Standard, the Cape Wind Project, the Wind Technology Testing Center in Charlestown which is the nation’s first wind turbine blade testing facility, and many more.

Start With the Facts

• Fossil fuel-based electricity is projected to account for more than 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
• Oil companies are legally responsible only for the first $350 million in costs from an onshore spill and the first $75 million for an offshore spill.
• Republicans in Congress recently defeated the Close Big Oil Tax Loophole Act, which would have ended $21 billion in subsidies to oil companies over the next decade.
• Massachusetts is home to 701 tons of spent nuclear fuel and President Obama has ended plans for a national nuclear waste facility in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain.

Alan’s Plan

Alan Khazei recognizes special-interest subsidies must no longer drive America’s energy policy. Especially in these times of fiscal restraint, obsolete policies such as subsidies for oil companies, nuclear energy, and ethanol producers need to be re-examined or outright eliminated. To this end, Alan will:

• Fight to ensure passage of The Big Oil Bailout Prevention Unlimited Liability Act to raise the liability cap for offshore oil well spills from $75 million to $10 billion.
• Fight to end billions of dollars in subsidies to big oil companies. The Close Big Oil Tax Subsidies Actwould repeal $21 billion of tax subsidies over the next decade for oil companies earning record profits.
• As U.S. Senator, Alan will call for the creation of a new Clean Energy Institute (CEI) and to increase U.S. investments in clean energy research to $20 billion a year to fund and facilitate the increased investment in clean energy technology and to ensure that the efficacy of every dollar is maximized. MIT President Dr. Susan Hockfield and other leaders have also called for this innovation. Alan envisions CEI as a new entity that would be similar to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIH has played a central role in medical innovation. A recent report by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management found that the NIH was instrumental in funding 15 of the 21 (or 71%) major breakthrough drugs.
• Alan supports President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative to make commercial buildings in the United States 20 percent more energy efficient by 2020 and save $40 billion of energy costs each year.
• Expand the US Department of Energy Home Energy Score program which is currently being tested on Cape Cod to allow homeowners to compare their home's energy consumption to that of other homes, similar to a vehicle's mile-per-gallon rating.
• Support Department of Defense energy initiatives including the Navy’s goal to get at least half of all its energy from non-fossil sources by 2020.
• Increase the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements for automobile fuel efficiency to 60 miles per gallon by 2025. Existing technology - such as 6 & 7 speed transmissions, high-strength lightweight materials, aerodynamic design, and high-efficiency air conditioning systems - can help meet this goal and reduce consumption by approximately 1 billion barrels of oil each year. This would be a significant reduction from the 7 billion barrels of oil that the US used in 2010.
• Alan will partially fund the increased investment in clean energy research and the development of the Clean Energy Institute by giving US citizens the opportunity to invest in America’s clean energy future through Clean Energy Independence Bonds. These would be modeled after the highly successful Victory Bonds, which were sold in the US during World War II. Victory Bonds were extremely popular during the war and over 60% of Americans bought war bonds. Through the sale of Victory Bonds, the US government raised an incredible $185 billion to help fund the war - this would be over $2 trillion dollars in today’s dollars.