Energy storm

Just in case you had any doubt about the nation’s coming energy problems, Sens. Susan Collins and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., are unusually clear. Their new report on energy is titled “The Perfect Storm: How Convergence of Shortages in Three Major Energy Markets Could Threaten the American Economy.” From strongly worded reports, the public might reasonably expect similarly strong action in Congress.

In case you missed the drift in the title about the direction of oil, gas and electricity prices, Sen. Collins explains: “Our report predicts that energy prices could nearly triple within just ten years. … This brewing storm is more than an energy crisis. It is also an economic crisis as families are forced to spend more and more of their income to heat their homes and fuel their cars.” The added cost, the report concludes, is about $2,000 per family.

In response, the senators recommend that applications for oil and gas exploration on federal lands be expedited and that the government expand incentives for even more drilling. A new pipeline for carrying natural gas from Alaska, they say, would help, as would streamlining the process for siting power plants, natural gas pipelines and transmission poles. Sen. Collins recently has been glorified by environmentalists in Maine for her stances on carbon-dioxide reductions and global warming. Fair to say with this proposal that her honorary membership at the Sierra Club has been put on hold.

Not that the report lacks plenty of ways to reduce demand. It has them, starting with higher fuel efficiency standards for light trucks, minivans and SUVs. Coincidentally, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., tomorrow are expected to hold a press conference on their six-year proposal to raise fuel-efficiency standards and bring light trucks and SUVs under the same standard, forcing the entire industry to make significant changes. Their proposal is expected to save 1 million barrels of oil a day, as well as avoid 200 million tons of CO2 annually.

Other proposals in the Collins-Schumer report include restoring funds for alternative-energy research, increasing incentives for fuel efficiency and encouraging local utilities to use real-time pricing to push power use off peak times and to bring back conservation techniques. All of these proposals are to be encouraged, even if they do not, by themselves, seem capable of calming “the perfect storm.”

Still, it’s a start. And even a start is not to be underestimated in a Congress that has for two decades mentioned that it would be a good idea for the United States to have a stronger energy policy and then gone back to sleep on the issue. If the near future is anywhere near as dangerous as the Collins-Schumer report concludes, Congress might stay awake this time and begin working on these recommendations.