The best tool that must be given a high priority is a comprehensive national policy that will rapidly increase energy efficiency, accelerate the production of renewable energy, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and create new economic development.
Some 92 percent of our nation's energy comes from costly and limited resources. And much of that comes in the form of crude oil from unstable governments that continue to have too much influence on global oil production and trade, leading to fluctuating supplies and prices. A long-term, stable and wide-ranging energy policy that diversifies the source of our energy, particularly through the support of domestic production, is critical to the economic stability of our nation.
Furthermore, any national energy strategy should create markets for renewable energy that value the role of agriculture and forestry in producing clean energy.
There are near-term priorities that stakeholders believe will be dealt with in the lame-duck congressional session expected to begin later this month, including adopting a five-year farm bill that includes an energy title that ensures the sustainable contributions that agriculture and rural areas can make to our national energy supply. A new farm bill must also have a strong research element that accelerates the development of innovative, sustainable energy technologies.
Members of the 112th Congress are also expected to use their remaining time this year to extend a wide package of business tax credits that have expired (biodiesel Production Tax Credits, or PTCs, for example), or are set to expire at the end of this year (the wind energy PTC) or in 2013 (a variety of PTCs that benefit other renewable energy technologies).
