There are few issues as far-reaching as energy. Every day, American families and businesses need reliable and affordable energy to power our homes, cars, schools, stores, factories and offices. Energy is important to our economy, our prosperity and our way of life.

Unfortunately, energy production and consumption can degrade our air, land and water and deplete finite resources. And every day, American service men and women put their lives on the line overseas to ensure that oil can flow from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere to the corner filling stations here in America. For these reasons, decisions we make today will greatly touch our economy, environment and security for generations.

This is why I feel so strongly that America must promote a balanced energy policy that transitions the nation from our heavy dependence on polluting, and sometimes insecure, fossil fuels to more efficient, clean and reliable energy. The key to this transition is technology. With leadership from the federal government, America can significantly increase the use of renewable energy, such as wind, solar, geothermal and biomass to generate electricity. We can build more efficient cars, saving more than 2 million barrels of oil each day in the coming decades. We can develop alternatives to oil to power transportation from increased use of natural gas to bio-fuels. We can construct a modern transportation infrastructure to reduce oil consumption, especially our passenger rail service for urban and suburban commuters.

I believe that such a national strategy would strengthen America. It would reduce the pollution connected with asthma, lung cancer and heart disease. It would reduce the pollution associated with global warming. It would strengthen our national security by lessening our dependence on oil and our vulnerability to imported oil. Instead of sending American dollars overseas, we’d be investing in American farmers producing bio-diesel, American workers building more efficient cars. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of jobs to be created in the design, manufacture, refining and distribution of domestic, renewable energy.

It is time for America to become proactive and innovative in finding solutions to our energy concerns. I am committed to this effort, and I hope that you will join me in supporting a balanced energy policy toward energy security.

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