Maurice Ferre for US Senate - Florida Democratic US Senate Candidate

My position on the U.S. energy policy can be summed up in five words: we need an energy policy. The U.S. has tried to establish an energy policy for 40 years since Jimmy Carter, but failed. Today, in light of the BP Deep-Water Horizon catastrophe, President Obama and the United States have an opportunity to vigorously create an energy policy, which is crucial to the establishment of a new economy. Rahm Emanuel stated, “don’t let a crisis go to waste.” The BP Gulf oil spill is a crisis that should be a springboard to the New Economy. The New Economy will be based on renewable energy and technology. The New Economy will entail a shift from the past to the present , from an emphasis on oil and coal to a focus on renewable energy. The implementation of an energy policy is vital to overcoming the recession and the potential depression that is still threatening the security of our nation. A New Economy based on technological innovation and fuel-use rather than the traditional economy of America’s past based on industrial manufacturing, is a viable solution to safeguarding our future in such a competitive international market. The U.S. needs to move to the New Economy based on energy and technology. We must work to eliminate petroleum fuels from use for transportation, heat and electricity production by committing to developing a well organized and structured short-term (10 years) and long-term (20 years) energy plan. This New Economy fuel independence would solve the current problems in the US economy by creating jobs, addressing climate change issues, protecting the environment, and launching new forms of ground transportation.

Liquified Natural Gas (LNG): I believe that T. Boone Pickens’ plan of shifting to natural gas fueled vehicles should be promoted. 13 million vehicles use LNG in the world today. In 10 years, our cars, trucks, and buses could be running completely on LNG instead of oil while we invest in more affordable hydrogen-powered vehicles and plug-in electric cars that can go 75 mph with a range of 500 miles. As wind power becomes a larger portion of our electricity source, diverting our natural gas resources in the form of LNG to our cars and trucks will pull us further away from oil and subjection under OPEC and provide a lower emission alternative to traditional gasoline. Furthermore, LNG will be significantly cheaper than gasoline and diesel. However, while some of our natural gas can come from what is no longer used for electricity, using more natural gas requires opening up more land for extraction. I support the extraction of natural gas, but I do not back the alternative procedure of extracting natural gas through shale cracking, as it has the potential in creating serious environmental repercussions. I will be dedicated to making sure that any new exploring for natural gas energy is done with an emphasis on safety that has clearly been absent from the oil and coal industries. This includes clamping down on extraction methods such as coal-bed methane mining and off-shore drilling.

Solar Power: If there is one energy source that Florida is uniquely suited to tap into, it is the limitless power of the sun. America was once a trailblazer in the development of photovoltaic technology, but now we are lagging behind. By promoting rapid new investments in the building of solar power stations and providing new and expanded incentives for home and business owners to invest in solar panel technology, we can create hundreds of thousands of jobs in engineering, building, and installation, and move our nation away from dirty coal and oil, and toward an energy source that does not require extraction from the ground, nor creates the emissions of fossil fuels.

Biodiesel: Reducing our dependence on oil means finding new methods for powering our vehicles. Rapidly increasing our use of biodiesel from renewable sources and making them available nationwide will pull us away from the dead end of oil dependency, and has the added benefit of producing only half the emissions of traditional diesel. The perennial weed, Jatropa curcas has become very popular for biodiesel production. Brazil, the Philippines and New Zealand have taken advantage of this high yielding, easy to grow crop, and we can follow their example.

Wind Power: Currently, about 1 percent of America’s energy is derived from wind power, but times are changing. The example set by Cape Cod this year shows that renewable clean wind energy is a viable choice for generating electricity in coastal cities and all along the Great Plains. A conversion from coal and natural gas to wind power for electricity will create employment in building, maintenance, and engineering while rapidly reducing our dependence on the dirtiest of fossil fuels. It will also allow us to free up our natural gas resources for use in our cars as a cleaner burning alternative to crude oil. The potential for wind power has caught on in other nations. In 2004, China began tapping into wind energy, and has been able to double it’s wind power generation capacity each year since then, vaulting past Denmark and Spain and behind only the United States and Germany. We can step up, or we can be left behind. By 2011, China will have more factories building electric wind mills than all of Europe.

Micro Nuclear Technology: We can not have a serious discussion about rapidly reducing our greenhouse gas emissions without having a frank discussion about incorporating nuclear power. I think that we should include nuclear energy, if it can be done in a way that is both competitive and safe. It means turning away from the old paradigm of giant nuclear power plants, and towards innovative technologies such as micro nuclear reactors. These reactors take up a fraction of the space of a traditional nuclear facility (less than 2 meters from end-to-end), which means they don’t pose as potential targets of national security threats that large nuclear reactors do. The waste produced by five years of operating these reactors is about the size of a softball, and is a good candidate for fuel recycling. Also, the fuel that the latest models use is not suitable for proliferation purposes. From this we get enough power to fuel over 10,000 homes for five years. If nuclear power is going to be part of America’s energy equation, it is technology like this that needs to be researched, tested, and eventually implemented.

Extreme Makeover of the Power Grid: It is also important to encourage efficiency and infrastructure investment planning. Research shows that over 50 percent of electrical energy is lost in transmission, thus the government should work to create incentives and standards for development of upgraded high-voltage transmission lines which would enable better energy delivery and storage systems so as not to lose vast amounts of electricity. As the need for alternative energy sources rises amidst our oil-dependency, we as a nation must embrace radical efficiency.

Legislation: While the legislation is far from perfect, I would vote for John Kerry and Joe Lieberman’s American Power Act. The training provisions, consumer rebates for stabilizing energy costs, and opportunities for impoverished rural communities help keep wallets safe while creating jobs in America. The Environmental Protection Agency’s assessment of the bill also shows that it would make a significant impact in reducing reliance on foreign oil and carbon emissions. The funding for development of natural gas vehicles and plug-in hybrids will also go a long way toward changing energy usage for the better, by ensuring that the investments in nuclear technology go toward innovative technologies, and moving more of the financial incentives away from clean coal and off-shore drilling, and toward better solutions like wind power and photovoltaics.