Christine Todd Whitman says that with oil prices low, it would be easy to perceive that we as a nation have our energy issues under control. But despite the current benefits derived from oil prices that have not been this low in six years, we still need an overarching energy policy for the U.S. In 1977, President Carter outlined a national energy plan based on 10 principles, the first of which was that we can have an effective and comprehensive energy policy only if the government takes responsibility for it and if the people understand the seriousness of the challenge. Those words are just as true today as they were four decades ago. Congress has not had a comprehensive energy bill since 2007, well before the widespread use of fracking and other current practices.
Industry analysts predict that we will need 29 per cent more electricity by 2040, which may seem like the distant future, but is actually on the horizon for utilities given the size of the investments they need to make. Additionally, much of our aging energy infrastructure is in desperate need of repair. If we do not build new nuclear plants or some other scalable form of clean-energy generation now, we are going to spend vastly more money when the situation grows desperate again with high oil and gas prices.
Currently, much of the focus is on the benefits of natural gas. This has happened before, when natural-gas prices are low it seems like the silver bullet. But prices will increase again just as they have in the past. She advises that we should take advantage of the current low prices, but not ignore the rest of the system as we plan for the future.
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