Responsibility for energy and climate change issues cuts across at least eight executive agencies and more than two dozen committees of Congress. The predictable result is policy paralysis, the retired general who stepped down last October as President Obama's national security adviser argues.
Gen. James L. Jones, retired, said in an interview that his inability to streamline executive branch energy policy was one of his greatest shortcomings as National Security Council director. He is now part of a group proposing major government reorganization and other measures to reframe the debate over energy and climate policy.
The group includes the retired senators Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, and Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi, and William K. Reilly, a former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and co-chairman of the president's commission on the BP oil spill. They plan to announce their project at a Washington press conference on Tuesday.
Acting under the auspices of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington research and advocacy group financed by foundations, unions and corporations (including some major energy companies), the group hopes to break the political deadlock that has stymied any significant action on comprehensive energy policy.
They want to shift the focus of the debate from the environmental benefits of reducing fossil fuel use to the national security aspects of the nation's dependence on oil, much of it from the Middle East and other unstable regions. They also contend that the nation is falling behind in nuclear technology and the development of alternative energy systems.They note that climate change is already posing security challenges because of the political implications of migrations caused by food shortages and drought.
But first, General Jones said, the government needs to organize itself for the task.
"I failed in one aspect of my job," said General Jones, a former Marine Corps commandant. "I should have advocated much more persuasively for the creation of a senior director in the N.S.C. and a fully staffed directorate to deal with energy as a national security issue, which it is."
He said that Carol Browner, who recently left as White House coordinator for energy and climate change policy, did not have the authority or staff she needed to compel action by the executive branch. And the president's attention to the issue was episodic because of constant crises and other priorities, he added.
"As a result," General Jones said, "it didn't get the daily attention the president wanted. It was a structural problem that can and should be fixed. I made that recommendation to him when I left."
Senator Lott, the former Republican leader, said that Congress periodically turns its attention to energy policy and passes a bill to mandate more ethanol use, for example, or greater support for renewable energy sources. "Ever since Nixon 38 years ago, we make grand sweeping speeches using terms like 'energy independence,' and 'addiction to oil,' but we've got to move beyond the rhetoric," he said.
He said there was no system for measuring progress toward the goals set by Congress or the administration and that one of the tasks of the new study group will be to design means of doing so.
The group says that President Obama's recent pledge to reduce oil imports by a third by 2025 is admirable, but that a better goal would be to reduce the consumption of oil relative to the size of the economy – a measure known as oil intensity.
"We must move beyond the ill-defined and potentially counterproductive idea of 'energy independence' in favor of near-term, achievable goals that gradually, but decisively, shift our economy away from oil," the group says in an open letter to policymakers. "Near-term goals might include specific targets for expanding and diversifying oil production globally, strengthening international cooperation on petroleum reserves and working with other nations to ensure spare production capacity is available in the event of a major supply disruption."
Gen. James L. Jones, retired, said in an interview that his inability to streamline executive branch energy policy was one of his greatest shortcomings as National Security Council director. He is now part of a group proposing major government reorganization and other measures to reframe the debate over energy and climate policy.
The group includes the retired senators Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, and Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi, and William K. Reilly, a former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and co-chairman of the president's commission on the BP oil spill. They plan to announce their project at a Washington press conference on Tuesday.
Acting under the auspices of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington research and advocacy group financed by foundations, unions and corporations (including some major energy companies), the group hopes to break the political deadlock that has stymied any significant action on comprehensive energy policy.
They want to shift the focus of the debate from the environmental benefits of reducing fossil fuel use to the national security aspects of the nation's dependence on oil, much of it from the Middle East and other unstable regions. They also contend that the nation is falling behind in nuclear technology and the development of alternative energy systems.They note that climate change is already posing security challenges because of the political implications of migrations caused by food shortages and drought.
But first, General Jones said, the government needs to organize itself for the task.
"I failed in one aspect of my job," said General Jones, a former Marine Corps commandant. "I should have advocated much more persuasively for the creation of a senior director in the N.S.C. and a fully staffed directorate to deal with energy as a national security issue, which it is."
He said that Carol Browner, who recently left as White House coordinator for energy and climate change policy, did not have the authority or staff she needed to compel action by the executive branch. And the president's attention to the issue was episodic because of constant crises and other priorities, he added.
"As a result," General Jones said, "it didn't get the daily attention the president wanted. It was a structural problem that can and should be fixed. I made that recommendation to him when I left."
Senator Lott, the former Republican leader, said that Congress periodically turns its attention to energy policy and passes a bill to mandate more ethanol use, for example, or greater support for renewable energy sources. "Ever since Nixon 38 years ago, we make grand sweeping speeches using terms like 'energy independence,' and 'addiction to oil,' but we've got to move beyond the rhetoric," he said.
Energy "didn't get the daily attention the president wanted. It was a structural problem that can and should be fixed."— Gen. James L. Jones
The group says that President Obama's recent pledge to reduce oil imports by a third by 2025 is admirable, but that a better goal would be to reduce the consumption of oil relative to the size of the economy – a measure known as oil intensity.
"We must move beyond the ill-defined and potentially counterproductive idea of 'energy independence' in favor of near-term, achievable goals that gradually, but decisively, shift our economy away from oil," the group says in an open letter to policymakers. "Near-term goals might include specific targets for expanding and diversifying oil production globally, strengthening international cooperation on petroleum reserves and working with other nations to ensure spare production capacity is available in the event of a major supply disruption."
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