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Energy Policy
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| The term “energy crisis” was coined in the 1970’s to describe a problem that was actually less about limited supplies of hydrocarbons than it was about wrong government policies that contorted the marketplace and exacerbated the problems of that time. It was intended as a call to action for this country to find solutions to the challenges of growing dependence on foreign energy sources (at that time about 40% of U.S. demand) and development of alternative energy technology.
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| After more than thirty years we find the U.S. importing more than 60% of its hydrocarbon needs. We need to establish a challenge to finally get the U.S. off our hydrocarbon addiction and into the new energy basis that will drive the economy in the next century. That shift will happen. The only question is whether the U.S will drive the change and benefit from it or react to it and potentially lose the leadership role in technology and innovation that has marked our nation’s history for the past 100 years. |
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| The issue is as much one of national security – ceasing to support with petrodollars the very countries who use the economic strength resulting from selling oil to the U.S. to work against our interests around the world. |
| The U.S. needs to have a comprehensive energy policy that consists of these five parts: |
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1 ● Enhanced Development of Domestic Hydrocarbon Sources – While the long-term solution will require a move away from hydrocarbons we can do more to make the most of the domestic sources in order to reduce our dependence on oil from hostile foreign countries. Development of domestic reserves should be encouraged but always with state of the art environmental protections and any appropriate conditions to ensure that development is accomplished with the minimum disruption to the surroundings and the operational footprint is as limited as possible. |
2 ● Renewable Energy Production – In the past ten years bio fuels have emerged that have helped reduce the growth of the portion of our fuel supplies from foreign sources. Ethanol, especially from cellulosic feedstock, bio diesel, wind power and solar must all be encouraged to contribute to our goal of supplying more of America’s energy from domestic sources. South Dakota is uniquely positioned to become an energy generator for other areas of the U.S. that have growing electricity requirements but less potential to generate renewable power from wind or solar. South Dakota could be a critical source of energy for America if obstacles to commercialization can be removed. |
3 ● Trans-Continental Transmission Super Highway – The U.S. should establish an interstate transmission corridor to deliver power from new power generating facilities and renewable resources in South Dakota and the region to high load and high population centers. |
4 ● Nuclear Power Generation – The Federal Government should pre-approve plant design standards and criteria that meet state of the art safety and efficiency benchmarks as currently proven to be acceptable in other countries where nuclear development has continued for the past 30 years unimpeded and without incident. It must be coupled with the re-establishment of fuel reprocessing and a realistic solution to long-term storage of spent fuel. |
5 ● New Technologies and Next Generation Energy Sources – Significant federal resources should be directed toward experimentation and development of break-through technologies. Accelerated development of these new technologies will help eliminate the inflationary pressure that oil and gas price increases have on the economy and lessen the transfer of funds from the U.S. to the uncooperative and hostile countries that currently control global petroleum supply. |
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