Re-powering our nation: Where do we start?
More than 20 years ago, Al Gore and I helped organize the first-ever hearing in the Senate on the science of climate change. Twenty-two years later, we are still fighting to make people and policymakers feel the urgency of the issue.
Fortunately, we are not alone.
Today, America’s leadership—in the White House and in Congress—is more willing and better positioned than ever before to take action. In fact, green legislation signed by President Obama earlier this year was the kind of bold and visionary first step necessary to ward off a climate catastrophe.
The president’s package will speed up the green revolution, reordering just how we will need to power America in the near future and, in the process, create millions of green jobs to replace those lost in the current financial crisis.
The climate change and energy security bill that we will present to the Senate, building on the Waxman-Markey bill, will also jumpstart our economy, protect consumers, stop the ravages of unchecked global climate change, and ensure that America—not China or India—will be the leading economic power in this century.But where do we start? Everywhere, really.
We need a sustained commitment to renewable energy like wind, solar, biofuels and geothermal. We can demonstrate that commitment by aligning our tax code with tax credits for clean energy.
Of course, we also need to upgrade our power grid to use information technology in order to deliver clean sustainable energy. If we do, in a few years you should be able to plug your American-made hybrid into the outlet in your garage, so that you never use a drop of gasoline on your daily commute.
We need to retrofit buildings with solar panels and other devices to improve their energy efficiency. And we need to invest in cleaner technologies that have long existed—like mass transit, which actually predates the automobile.
We need to provide real incentives for energy efficiency, which is the quickest and cheapest way to reduce our energy use. Through improved efficiency alone, we can reduce energy consumption by 30 percent and save much of the $700 billion we send every year to the Middle East for oil. And that isn’t just dollar savings—that is also an improved national security.
You might say, “Who’s he kidding? All of that is a pipe dream.” But the history of the environmental movement tells us differently.
I remember when you couldn’t even mention environmental issues without a snicker. But then in the 1970s, people got tired of seeing things like the Cuyahoga River in Ohio catching fire from chemicals.
So one day, millions of Americans marched. And politicians had no choice but to take notice. Twelve Congressmen were tagged as the “Dirty Dozen,” and soon after seven of them were kicked out of office. The floodgates were opened. We got the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act signed into law. We created the Environmental Protection Agency. And quality of life improved because concerned citizens made their issues matter in elections.
Today, America faces another moment of truth like that. Are we going to step up and put in place the policies that will galvanize our green entrepreneurs, drive development of new clean technologies, re-energize our economy and tackle global climate change? Or do we leave it to other countries?
The question is not whether the 21st century economy will be a green economy—it has to become one, and it will. The question is whether it happens in time to avert catastrophe and whether America will continue to lead.
John F. Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, is chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was his party's presidential nominee in 2004.
