Joe Leiberman says:
My plan is based on four key principles.
First, my Administration will get serious about energy efficiency.
Last weekend, we learned that the efficiency of our cars and trucks hit a 22-year low. What a waste. What a mistake.
The Lieberman Administration will create fuel efficiency standards that will save 2 million barrels of oil a day within 10 years.
This is a new approach - pegging fuel efficiency standards to the number of barrels of oil we save each day.
This is a better approach -- using the strengths of the marketplace to achieve the goals that our nation needs.
For too long, we've been caught in a stale debate between those who say that fuel efficiency standards are unachievable and those who want to micromanage the actions of individual automobile manufacturers. Special interests on both sides of the aisle have held us back from a cleaner environment and a stronger economy.
It's time to do what's right for America. We need to set fuel efficiency standards for the benefit of the nation. And we need to give automakers the flexibility they need to meet these standards.
After all, government doesn't design cars and trucks; our automakers and autoworkers do.
Under my plan, if one company decides to build less efficient cars, it will be able to trade with a more efficient automaker so that the entire industry reaches our overall goal. In other words, my Administration will use the principles of the market as a powerful engine for progress.
To this end, automakers will have incentives to increase the number of hybrid cars in their fleet.
And they will be able to put greater emphasis on using clean diesel - a technology that we have right now, that shows great promise, and that meets our strict air-quality standards.
In the old system, companies that figured out how to cut corners were rewarded. In the new system, those who figure out how to cut pollution will be rewarded.
And that will also reward the Americans who build our automobiles, by securing their jobs for years to come.
Second, we will make smarter use of our existing natural energy resources.
And as the centerpiece of this goal, we will launch an urgent, national program to find new ways to use one of our oldest resources: coal.
Right now, America has a 200-year supply of coal.
We are literally sitting on the resources we need to be energy independent.
The problem has been that coal has been one of the dirtier fuels we have.
But in the Lieberman Administration, we will find the best way to use this abundant resource and keep American jobs, without sacrificing the environment.
Fortunately, there are new ways to use coal. The most promising is called Integrated Gasification-Combined Cycle -- or IGCC technology.
It's a mouthful, but it does a lot. It turns coal into hydrogen, the cleanest fuel in the universe. The only by-product is carbon dioxide, which can be disposed of by injecting it deep underground.
My Administration will invest $15 billion over 10 years in new coal technologies. That's 15 times more than George W. Bush has set aside for these promising technologies.
Coal has been an integral part our past and with this investment we can make it an important part of our future.
I believe we can protect - and even create -- jobs in the hard-hit coal-producing regions of our nation.
And investing in this technology will boost American commerce. We can export American know-how to reduce global warming in countries like India and China - two of the largest burners of coal and producers of greenhouse gases.
Third, I will speed the deployment of new, clean technologies.
As President, I will give consumers and businesses that purchase highly-efficient vehicles - such as hybrids and natural gas vehicles - a tax credit of at least $1,000 and as much as $5,000 for buying these high-tech cars.
And I will initiate a $6.5 billion research and development program to help our universities, labs, and energy companies create fuel cells and other innovative technologies to wean us off oil and put America at the forefront of one of the most promising industries of tomorrow.
http://www.cfr.org/publication.php?id=5975
My plan is based on four key principles.
First, my Administration will get serious about energy efficiency.
Last weekend, we learned that the efficiency of our cars and trucks hit a 22-year low. What a waste. What a mistake.
The Lieberman Administration will create fuel efficiency standards that will save 2 million barrels of oil a day within 10 years.
This is a new approach - pegging fuel efficiency standards to the number of barrels of oil we save each day.
This is a better approach -- using the strengths of the marketplace to achieve the goals that our nation needs.
For too long, we've been caught in a stale debate between those who say that fuel efficiency standards are unachievable and those who want to micromanage the actions of individual automobile manufacturers. Special interests on both sides of the aisle have held us back from a cleaner environment and a stronger economy.
It's time to do what's right for America. We need to set fuel efficiency standards for the benefit of the nation. And we need to give automakers the flexibility they need to meet these standards.
After all, government doesn't design cars and trucks; our automakers and autoworkers do.
Under my plan, if one company decides to build less efficient cars, it will be able to trade with a more efficient automaker so that the entire industry reaches our overall goal. In other words, my Administration will use the principles of the market as a powerful engine for progress.
To this end, automakers will have incentives to increase the number of hybrid cars in their fleet.
And they will be able to put greater emphasis on using clean diesel - a technology that we have right now, that shows great promise, and that meets our strict air-quality standards.
In the old system, companies that figured out how to cut corners were rewarded. In the new system, those who figure out how to cut pollution will be rewarded.
And that will also reward the Americans who build our automobiles, by securing their jobs for years to come.
Second, we will make smarter use of our existing natural energy resources.
And as the centerpiece of this goal, we will launch an urgent, national program to find new ways to use one of our oldest resources: coal.
Right now, America has a 200-year supply of coal.
We are literally sitting on the resources we need to be energy independent.
The problem has been that coal has been one of the dirtier fuels we have.
But in the Lieberman Administration, we will find the best way to use this abundant resource and keep American jobs, without sacrificing the environment.
Fortunately, there are new ways to use coal. The most promising is called Integrated Gasification-Combined Cycle -- or IGCC technology.
It's a mouthful, but it does a lot. It turns coal into hydrogen, the cleanest fuel in the universe. The only by-product is carbon dioxide, which can be disposed of by injecting it deep underground.
My Administration will invest $15 billion over 10 years in new coal technologies. That's 15 times more than George W. Bush has set aside for these promising technologies.
Coal has been an integral part our past and with this investment we can make it an important part of our future.
I believe we can protect - and even create -- jobs in the hard-hit coal-producing regions of our nation.
And investing in this technology will boost American commerce. We can export American know-how to reduce global warming in countries like India and China - two of the largest burners of coal and producers of greenhouse gases.
Third, I will speed the deployment of new, clean technologies.
As President, I will give consumers and businesses that purchase highly-efficient vehicles - such as hybrids and natural gas vehicles - a tax credit of at least $1,000 and as much as $5,000 for buying these high-tech cars.
And I will initiate a $6.5 billion research and development program to help our universities, labs, and energy companies create fuel cells and other innovative technologies to wean us off oil and put America at the forefront of one of the most promising industries of tomorrow.
http://www.cfr.org/publication.php?id=5975
