Mandate All New Vehicles are Flexible Fuel Vehicles. Sustainably-produced biofuels can create jobs, protect the environment and help end oil addiction but only if Americans drive cars that will take such fuel cells. Obama and Biden will work with congress and auto companies to ensure that all new vehicles have FFV capability- the capability by the end of his first term.
Develop the Next Generation of Sustainable Biofuels and Infrastructure. Advances in biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol, biobutenol and other new technologies that produce synthetic petroleum from sustainable feedstocks offer tremendous potential to break our addiction to oil. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will work to ensure that these clean alternative fuels are developed and incorporated into our national supply as soon as possible. They will require at least 60 billion gallons of advanced biofuels by 2030. They will invest federal resources, including tax incentives and goverment contracts into developing the most promising technologies and building the infrastructure to support them. Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard: Obama and Biden have established a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) to speed the introduction of lowcarbon non petroleum fuels. The standard requires fuels suppliers in 2010 to begin to reduce the carbon of fuel by 5 percent within 5 years and 10 percent within 10 years. The ObamaBiden plan will incentivize increased private sector investment in advanced lowcarbon fuels and has a sustainability provision to ensure that increased biofuels production does not come at the expense environmental conservation. The LCFS is an important mechanism in ensuring that our efforts reduce our oil dependence also reduce carbon emissions.
Promote the Supply of Domestic Energy With 3 percent of the worlds oil reserves, the U.S. cannot drill its way to energy security. But U.S. oil and gas production plays an important role in our domestic economy and remains critical to prevent global energy prices from climbing even higher. There are several key opportunities to support increased U.S. production of oil and gas that do not require opening up currently protected areas.
A Use it or Lose It Approach to Existing Leases. Oil companies have access to 68 million acres of land, over 40 million offshore, which they are not drilling on. Drilling in open areas could significantly increase domestic oil and gas production. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will require oil companies to diligently develop these leases or turn them over so that another company can develop them.
Promote the Responsible Domestic Production of Oil and Natural Gas. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will set up a process for early identification of any infrastructure obstacles/shortages or possible federal permitting process delays to drilling in:
- Bakken Shale in Montana and North Dakota which could have as much as 4 billion recoverable barrels of oil according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
- Unconventional natural gas supplies in the Barnett Shale formation in Texas and the Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas.
page 4 of 8 Create New Job Training Programs for Clean Technologies. The ObamaBiden plan will increase funding for federal workforce training programs and direct these programs to incorporate green technologies training, such as advanced manufacturing and weatherization training, into their efforts to help Americans find and retain stable, highpaying jobs. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will also create an energyfocused youth jobs program to invest in disconnected and disadvantaged youth. This program will provide youth participants with energy efficiency and environmental service opportunities to improve the energy efficiency of homes and buildings in their communities, while also providing them with practical skills and experience in important career fields of expected highgrowth employment. Participants will not only be able to use their training to find new jobs, but also build skills that will help them move up the career ladder over time.
Make our Cars, Trucks and SUVs Fuel Efficient Last year, oil provided more than 96 percent of the energy in our vehicles. It is an economic, national security and environmental imperative that this neartotal dependence comes to an end. To achieve this goal, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will implement a strategy that will within 10 years allow us to reduce our consumption of oil by more than we currently import from the Middle East and Hugo Chavez Venezuela combined. In order to do that, he will:
Increase Fuel Economy Standards. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will increase fuel economy standards 4 percent per each year while protecting the financial future of domestic automakers. The plan, which will save nearly a half trillion gallons of gasoline and 6 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases, will establish concrete targets for annual fuel efficiency increases while giving industry the flexibility to meet those targets. Invest in Developing Advanced Vehicles and Put 1 Million PluginElectric Vehicles on the Roadby 2015. As a U.S. senator, Barack Obama has led efforts to jumpstart federal investment in advanced vehicles, including combined plugin hybrid/flexible fuel vehicles, which can get over 150 miles per gallon of gas As president, Obama will continue this leadership by investing in advanced vehicle technology with a specific focus on R&D in advanced battery technology. The increased federal funding will leverage private sector funds and support our domestic automakers to bring plugin hybrids and other advanced vehicles to American consumers. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will also provide a $7,000 tax credit for the purchase of advanced technology vehicles as well as conversion tax credits. And to help create a market and show government leadership in purchasing highly efficient cars, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will commit to: o Within one year of becoming President, the entire White House fleet will be converted to plugins as security permits; and o Half of all cars purchased by the federal government will be plugin hybrids or allelectric by 2012 Partner with Domestic Automakers. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will also provide $4 billion retooling tax credits and loan guarantees for domestic auto plants and parts manufacturers, so that the new fuelefficient cars can be built in the U.S. by American workers rather than overseas.
page two:SHORTTERMSOLUTIONS: IMMEDIATE RELIEF FROM PAIN AT THE PUMP Barack Obama and Joe Biden recognize that skyrocketing energy costs are taking a heavy toll on American families. To address the squeeze on Americans, they are calling for an: emergency energy rebate; an aggressive plan to crack down on speculators; and a swap of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help provide immediate relief from soaring energy prices.
Immediate Provide Emeregency Energy Rebate: *wil require oil companies to provide direct relief worth $500 for an individual and $1000 for a married couple. *it will help families cope with the rising price of gasoline, food and other necessarites. *the rebates will be fully paid for with five years of a windfall profits on tax on record oil companies. * The energy rebates will: offset the entire increase in gas prices for a working family over the next four months; or pay for the entire increase in winter heatig bills for a typical family in a cold- weather state.
Crack Down on Exessive Energy Speculation: * Obama and Biden will enact simple legislation to close these loopholes and increase transparency on the market to help bring oil prices down and prevent traders from unfairly lining their pockets at the expense of the American peoople.
Swap Light and Heavy Crude, Release Oil from Strategic Pertroleum Reserve Cut Prices: *The United States; Strategic Petroleum Reserve(SPR) *With the goal of of bringing down prices at the pump, they support releasing light oil from the SPR now and replacing it later with heavier crude more suited to our long- term needs.
Mid- To- Long term Solutions: New Energy For America *Our nation is confronted by two major energy challenges our dependence on foreign oil and global climate change both of which stem from our current dependence on fossil fuels for energy. Barack and Biden believe we have a moral, enviromental, economic, and security imperative to address our dependence on foreign oil and tackle climate change im a serious, sunstainable manner.
Tackle Climate Change As a result of climate change, the polar ice caps are shrinking causing sea levels to rise; extreme weaether is wreaking havoc accross the globe; droughts are becoming more severe, tropical diseases are migrating north and numerous species are bieng threatened with extinction. -Immplemen
Prioritize the Construction of the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will work with stakeholders to facilitate construction of the pipeline. While this pipeline was proposed in 1976, and Congress authorized up to $18 billion in loan guarantees for this project in 2004, there has been no progress in building this critical energy infrastructure under the Bush Administration. The planned pipeline would have a daily capacity of 4 billion cubic feet of natural gas, or almost 7 percent of current U.S. consumption. Not only is this pipeline critical to our energy security, it will create thousands of new jobs. Getting More from our Existing Oil Fields. Nationally, experts believe that up to 85 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil remains stranded in existing fields. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) using carbon dioxide offers an immediate to medium term opportunity to produce more oil from existing fields. And in the EOR process, large quantities of CO2 can be sequestered underground, reducing global warming pollution. Under an Obama Administration, we will pass a carbon cap and trade bill, which will incentivize emitters to send their CO2 to old oil fields for EOR, thereby providing economic benefits while also stimulating additional domestic oil and gas production. To speed that process, we will map all stationary CO2 sources and develop a database to help industry calculate the most costeffective oil field destination for each source's CO2.Diversify Our Energy Sources There are no silver bullet solutions to our energy crises. Our economy, security and environment will be best served through a sustained effort to diversify our energy sources. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will: Require 10 Percent of Electricity to Come from Renewable Sources by 2012. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will establish a 10 percent federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to require that 10 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. is derived from clean, sustainable energy sources, like solar, wind and geothermal by 2012. Many states are already well on their way to achieving statewide goals and its time for the federal government to provide leadership for the entire country to support these new industries. This national requirement will spur significant private sector investment in renewable sources of energy and create thousands of new American jobs, especially in rural areas. And Barack Obama and Joe Biden will also extend the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) for 5 years to encourage the production of renewable energy. Develop and Deploy Clean Coal Technology. Carbon capture and storage technologies hold enormous potential to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as we power our economy with domestically produced and secure energy. As a U.S. Senator, Obama has worked tirelessly to ensure that clean coal technology becomes commercialized. An Obama administration will provide incentives to accelerate private sector investment in commercial scale zero carbon coal facilities. In order to maximize the speed with which we advance this critical technology, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will instruct DOE to enter into public private partnerships to develop 5 first of a kindcommercial scale coal fired plants with carbon capture and sequestration. Safe and Secure Nuclear Energy. Nuclear power represents more than 70 percent of our non carbon generated electricity. It is unlikely that we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate nuclear power as an option. However, before an expansion of nuclear power is considered, key issues must be addressed including: security of nuclear fuel and waste, waste storage, and proliferation. Barack Obama introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate to establish
guidelines for tracking, controlling and accounting for spent fuel at nuclear power plants. To prevent international nuclear material from falling into terrorist hands abroad, Obama worked closely with Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN) to strengthen international efforts to identify and stop the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction. As president, Obama will make safeguarding nuclear material both abroad and in the U.S. a top anti terrorism priority. In terms of waste storage, Barack Obama and Joe Biden do not believe that Yucca Mountain is a suitable site. They will lead federal efforts to look for safe, long term disposal solutions based on objective, scientific an
