EVENTS

Date:	Friday, October 31, 2008
Time:	4:00 PM -- 5:30 PM
Location:	Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036

Gingrich: Energy Independence Is Possible and Is Needed Now

WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 3, 2008--With Americans reeling from high energy prices and a near-certain recession, America needs a fundamentally new approach to addressing energy and economic issues. At an American Enterprise Institute book forum on October 31, AEI senior fellow and former speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich discussed his most recent book, Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less: A Handbook for Slashing Gas Prices and Solving Our Energy Crisis (Regnery, 2008), and laid out a series of steps that policymakers should take to promote energy independence and help resolve the current financial crisis.

Gingrich laid out a three-pronged strategy for a responsible energy policy:

• First, the United States should maximize its domestic supply of energy. This means drilling for oil and natural gas in America, as well as promoting wind, solar, biofuels, nuclear, and other renewables. Sending $700 billion a year to foreign dictators for oil is "incredibly destructive," Gingrich said, especially when there is three times as much oil locked in Rocky Mountain shale than in all of Saudi Arabia. There is enough natural gas in the United States to last over a thousand years, he added. And if America relied on nuclear power as much as France does, there would be two billion fewer tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere each year. Rather than taking advantage of these vast resources, America's energy policy has placed limits on oil drilling and favored environmental litigation that drives up the cost of using domestic sources of energy. Thus, in addition to expanding supply, America must have "serious regulation and litigation reform" to achieve energy independence.
• Second, America should adopt an "across-the-board" energy strategy, encouraging efficiency rather than favoring one particular source. This could be achieved, Gingrich stated, through a permanent research and development tax credit to foster more innovation. "You don't ask bureaucracies to develop new technology," he said, because doing so "doesn't work." Relying on the free market, however, will open up "an enormous world of competitive opportunity" that will reward success and promote efficiency.
• Third, America's energy infrastructure should be changed through incentives, such as awarding a prize to the first hydrogen engine that can be mass-marketed or the first vehicle that can get more than 100 miles per gallon on the highway. Gingrich used the transcontinental railroad as an example of how rewarding behavior is much more effective than penalties. Rather than taxing buggies, America provided incentives for the construction of a railroad connecting the coasts. Gingrich argued that tax credits and other prizes for innovation would solve the energy crisis much faster than increased regulation and taxation.

Every president since Richard Nixon has called for energy independence, but, for more than thirty years, America has done little to achieve this goal. This is due to an "absolute total policy failure" since the 1970s, Gingrich said, a failure that stemmed from a combination of politics, ideology, and the lack of a coherent national energy strategy. He warned that increasing the cost of energy or seriously reducing supply will prolong the current recession and that the current Democratic Congress appears to have an "ideological imperative to raise the cost of energy" through reinstating the offshore drilling ban next year and passing a cap-and-trade bill that will increase costs and send jobs overseas. The best way to "increase American wealth [is] by developing things here" in America, Gingrich said, which will lower the cost of energy, create jobs, and help the United States get out of its current economic crisis.

--STEVE EVERLEY

For video, audio, and more information about this event, visit www.aei.org/event1826/. To order Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less, visit www.aei.org/book964/.

For media inquiries, contact Veronique Rodman at 202.862.4870 or vrodman@aei.org.

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