Lugar Speech on Energy Security and Climate Change

Senator Dick Lugar gave a speech on September 21, 2009, at the Energy Security as National and Economic Security forum sponsored by IUPUI's Lugar Center for Renewable Energy and the Pew Environmental Group in Indianapolis, Indiana.

"Some actions we might take, such as developing renewable fuels, may be useful in addressing the entire cluster of threats. But some steps that might be beneficial for reducing oil dependence, such as powering new vehicles with electricity generated by conventional coal technologies, may aggravate greenhouse gas emissions. Still other steps that might be beneficial for climate change may worsen other threats in the cluster. For example, EPA regulations on land-use changes could stunt biofuels production, or carbon regulation at home could increase import dependence on refined petroleum products.

"Even as we work for a conversion from a fossil fuel dominated economy to one that depends much more on renewable resources, failure to maintain reliable supplies of oil and natural gas in the interim could be debilitating to our economy and our national security. Therefore, as we seek to reduce carbon output, we cannot afford to be complacent in the development of domestic oil and gas supplies, nor can we neglect bilateral relationships with key energy producers around the world or fail to reinforce multilateral energy cooperation.

"Our task is not just to anticipate all possible national security threats that might emerge in the future due to our current energy portfolio. We have to develop timelines that compare the relative immediacy of these threats, and prioritize accordingly. Then we have to make rational choices about where and how to apply limited resources."

Read the whole speech

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The Fundamentals of the Lugar Energy Initiative

Lugar's Energy Plan - Senator Lugar's address to the Richard G. Lugar/Purdue University Summit on Energy Security, August 29, 2006.

Curing America's Oil Addiction - Transcript from Foreign Policy's Special Event featuring Senator Lugar and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, May 15, 2006.

U.S. Energy Security: A New Realism - Senator Lugar's speech to the Brookings Institution, March 13, 2006.

The New Petroleum - An essay by Senator Lugar and R. James Woolsey, as submitted to Foreign Affairs magazine, for the January/February 1999.