Memo to the President: Build a Secure Energy Future

Building a secure energy future—including heading off catastrophic climate change—was a top campaign priority, second only to meeting the ongoing global economic crisis. Successfully addressing both issues simultaneously will require determination, bipartisan leadership and political courage.

Despite competing priorities, we recommend that energy be a cornerstone of your first term, and that you push for domestic energy legislation before moving forward aggressively with global diplomacy. Your inaugural address can lay out this agenda, and introduce the “Energy Security and Climate Protection Act of 2009” to expand on your campaign proposals in low-cost, high-impact ways. This approach would address

two separate but complementary challenges:
􀂃 First, in the medium term, the legislation will expand on your pledges to stimulate investment in alternative energy sources and energy infrastructure, by also emphasizing energy-efficient transportation systems, particularly through a federal-state partnership.

􀂃 Second, over time, it will expand on your proposals to slash greenhouse gas emissions, by also launching a global diplomatic energy security campaign and revamping our domestic energy policy institutions.
To accomplish all of this, you will need to invest si
gnificant political capital, but this surely is a battle worth
fighting.