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On the Issues
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Energy Independence
For the latest developments on Senator Lieberman's work on energy issues, click here.
On June 21, 2007, the U.S. Senate passed an energy security bill by a broad-bipartisan margin. Included in that bill were several important measures that Senator Lieberman had conceived, crafted, and championed in order to end America's crippling oil addiction. In a pair of major policy speeches in 2005, Senator Lieberman began pressing the country to enhance its energy security by decreasing its reliance on a global oil market that is dominated by volatile and even hostile foreign governments. In November of that year, he joined with Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), Sam Brownback (R-KS), and a broadly bipartisan list of co-sponsors to introduce a bill designed to enhance America's national security and economic health by supplanting - with a combination of efficiency, renewable fuels, and electrification - a large portion of the oil that currently powers the nation's vehicles. He and his co-sponsors convinced Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, to include several key elements of their bill - called the Dependence Reduction through Innovation in Vehicles and Energy (DRIVE) Act - in the bill that the Energy Committee reported to the full Senate in May of this year. Then, on June 12, Senator Lieberman and his colleagues succeeded, by a vote of 63 to 30, in adding a key DRIVE Act provision to the energy bill in the full Senate. That central provision directs the Executive Branch to use all means at its disposal to cut 2.5 million barrels-per-day from our nation's oil use by 2016 and 10 million barrels-per-day from its oil use by 2031. Two days later, Senator Lieberman and his colleagues succeeded, this time with a voice vote, in attaching to the Senate bill another DRIVE Act measure that will reduce the oil dependence of the nation's transportation sector by increasing its use of electricity, which the U.S. generates primarily with domestic energy sources. As a result of these winning efforts, the energy bill that the Senate passed on June 21 fulfills the energy security vision that Senator Lieberman has championed over the last two years. Senator Lieberman's work to pass Energy Independence Legislation. Following through on the ideas presented in his 2005 address, Senator Lieberman and Senators Evan Bayh (D-IN), Sam Brownback (R-KS), and Norm Coleman (R-MN) introduced in November 2005 a bill to achieve true energy independence from foreign oil, The Vehicle and Fuel Choices for American Security Act (S. 2025) in November 2005. The bill would require the Executive Branch to use means readily at its disposal to save, by 2016, 2.5 million barrels per day from projected oil consumption in that year. That is roughly the amount of oil the United States currently imports from the Middle East. The bill would require 7 million barrels per day in savings by 2026 and 10 million barrels per day in savings by 2031 (current U.S. oil consumption is just over 20 million barrels per day). To implement these savings, S.2025 would set rising targets for manufacturers to produce flexible-fuel, alternative-fuel, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fuel-cell vehicles; institute loan guarantees, grants, and tax credits to promote sales of those vehicles; mandate the development of fuel-efficiency standards for heavy-duty vehicles; eliminate the current tax break for purchases of heavy Sports Utility Vehicles; require the federal government to improve the fuel-efficiency of its vehicle fleets; institute a program for increasing the use of fuel-saving tires; and institute a series of steps for increasing domestic production of ethanol fuel. S. 2025 now has 28 cosponsors, including Senators Akaka (D-HI), Bayh (D-IN), Bingaman (D-NM), Brownback (R-KS), Cantwell (D-WA), Carper (D-DE), Chafee (R-RI), Clinton (D-NY), Coleman (R-MN), Collins (R-ME), Dodd (D-CT), Feinstein (D-CA), Graham (R-SC), Inouye (D-HI), Isackson (R-GA), Kennedy (D-MA), Kerry (D-MA), Kohl (D-WI), Leahy (D-VT), Lincoln (D-AR), Lugar (R-IN), Menendez (D-NJ), Nelson (D-FL), Obama (D-IL), Reed (D-RI), Salazar (D-CO), Sessions (R-AL). Other supporters of the bill include Governors Bill Richardson (D-NM), George Pataki (R-NY), Set America Free, the National Resources Defense Council, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S PIRG), the Union of Concerned Scientists, 2020 Vision, the Earth Action Network, and the American Jewish Committee. On May 25 2006, Senator Lieberman and 17 other Senators sent a letter to Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), asking him to include S. 2025 in any energy bill brought to the floor of the Senate. On June 22, 2006, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on the Enhanced Energy Security Act (S. 2747) which Senator Lieberman helped introduce and is based on S. 2025. In May 2006, Senator Lieberman helped introduce Senator Maria Cantwell's (D-WA) Clean Energy Development for a Growing Economy (Clean EDGE) Act. The bill would require President Bush to develop and implement measures to reduce oil use by one million barrels per day by 2015 and 6 million barrels per day by 2020; provide a tax credit for the production of qualified new flexible fuel vehicles; promote alternative fuel investment by major oil companies and automobile manufacturers; ensure that at least 25 percent of the nation's energy consumed in 2025 will come from renewable resources; strengthen corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks; and promotes energy efficiency and conservation. On July 20, 2006, Senator Lieberman joined 40 of his colleagues in a letter asking Majority Leader Frist to provide all Americans with a cleaner and more secure energy future by working with them to pass the Clean EDGE Act. In June 2006, Senator Lieberman helped introduce Senator Diane Feinstein's (D-CA) Ten-in-Ten Fuel Economy Act to increase corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards by one mile per gallon (m.p.g) per year over ten years, thus raising CAFE standards from 25 to 35 m.p.g.
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Federal Resources
Bill Tracking |
Oil prices are volatile and rising over the long term. Senator Lieberman believes the fundamental reason is the shrinking margin between global oil demand and global oil supply. He feels strongly that the U.S. cannot drill its way out of this bind, for any modest amount of oil produced from new wells in the U.S. would be just a trickle in the stream of global production and thus would not have any appreciable effect on the price Americans pay for oil. The only way we can free ourselves from recurring price spikes and the whims of volatile and even hostile nations, in his view, is to end our oil addiction. That means sharply decreasing the amount of oil that our vehicles use. 
