CEOs, Retired Generals Push to Curb Oil Reliance
An influential private group of corporate chief executives and retired generals is telling lawmakers on Capitol Hill to "think big" on energy.
The Energy Security Leadership Council scheduled detailed discussions with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and other congressional leaders on their package of recommendations for a "grand compromise" to curb the nation's oil addiction. Some Hill staffers have said privately that there is some sentiment against trying a big energy bill this session, since such legislation typically gets bogged down in controversy. Many Democrats think they will be more effective trying smaller, more targeted bills that are assured of passage.
But the group of ex-military leaders and corporate officials, many of them running businesses highly sensitive to energy prices, became convinced that progress on all fronts at once–supply, demand, and environmental–was needed, with inevitable trade-offs.
"Everybody has their own interests," says council member Adam Goldstein, president of Royal Caribbean International, the cruise line that is one of the world's leading users of biofuels. "These competing and conflicting interests have caused a situation for the last 20 years where the country has not reduced its dependence on oil to the extent it should have and could have."
Some of the council's recommendations are not likely to sit well with Democrats, like the proposal to open more of the Outer Continental Shelf to oil and natural gas development; in December, the lame-duck Congress approved a more limited measure to expand access only in the Gulf of Mexico. But council members will argue that with sharply increased environmental protections, the United States could gain 1 million to 2 million barrels per day of supply while controlling ecological risks.
Other recommendations are likely to be greeted more warmly–like the idea of increasing long-dormant vehicle fuel economy standards by 4 percent a year–precisely the figure that President Bush used in his State of the Union address. Bush's latest proposals on energy are said to have been influenced by informal discussions he had at a private dinner with FedEx Chairman Frederick Smith, who cochairs the Energy Security Leadership Council. Smith and the other cochair, former Marine Commandant P.X. Kelley, and council member Robert Hormats, a Goldman Sachs vice president and former economic aide to Henry Kissinger, met in December with White House economists to discuss their ideas. On Monday, some members of the group met with Bush before heading today over to Capitol Hill.
Another council member, Herb Kelleher, the founder and executive chairman of Southwest Airlines, said in an interview with U.S. News that he liked Bush's energy proposals. He said he was most impressed by the meetings with the former generals, who brought home to him the challenge of monitoring oil transportation channels around the world.
"There's a huge hidden tax that the U.S. is paying in terms of military protection," Kelleher said. "It's almost impossible to quantify. One of the officers said, "I'll bet if the full cost of military protection were included, possibly gasoline would cost another $3 a gallon." My eyes flew open at that."
In addition to Reid and Hoyer, council members were slated to meet today with Sen. Chuck Schumer, Senate Energy and Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, Rep. Ed Markey, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman.