OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) - Sen. Lamar Alexander drew a standing ovation from
scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Friday as he proposed a
massive national commitment to clean energy and reducing dependence on foreign
oil.
"I propose that the United States launch a new Manhattan Project for clean
energy," the Tennessee Republican said, "with the goal of making our nation
independent within a generation."
Alexander is not the first to compare "the sense of urgency" needed to meet
today's energy challenges to the Manhattan Project race in World War II to
develop the first atomic bomb.
But Alexander, newly named chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, may
be the first offering to pull together a bipartisan five-year plan, with help
from the scientific community, that he hopes to deliver to the next president
shortly after the November election.
House Science Committee Chairman Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., pledged to work with
Alexander.
"I suspect Sen. Alexander and I will put together a proposal for the next
president before the end of this year," Gordon said. "It will not be a final
plan, but certainly a call to action."
"Instead of ending a war, the goal will be clean energy independence,"
Alexander said. "So that we can deal with rising gasoline prices, electricity
prices, clean air, climate change and national security. For our country first,
and (then) ... for the rest of the world."
The cost could be steep. Alexander, noting the Manhattan Project cost $24
billion in today's dollars, said it was too early to talk about budget
requirements.
But Gordon said the new energy initiative would cost "clearly billions of
dollars." Still, he said, "I think that can be done."
"We need to move, we can't wait," echoed U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn. who
represents Oak Ridge and is a ranking member of the House Appropriations
Committee. "Four-dollars-a-gallon gas is the incentive."
Alexander, a former Tennessee governor, university president and U.S.
education secretary, outlined seven "grand challenges" for energy-related
research over the next five years.
Alexander would focus on the following:
-- Supporting plug-in electric vehicle development, including "smart
metering" by utilities that would allow cheaper rates for overnight battery
charging.
-- Making solar power cost competitive with fossil fuels, with the promise
of solar thermal power plants.
-- Making biofuels cost competitive with gasoline, particularly ethanol from
cellulosic materials.
-- Making more new buildings energy efficient.
-- Developing systems to capture and store carbon emissions from coal-fired
power plants.
-- Developing ways to safely reprocess and store nuclear waste -- the "most
important breakthrough" needed to support more nuclear plants.
-- Continuing research on nuclear fusion.
Thom Mason, director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said there is one
significant difference between Alexander's proposal and the Manhattan Project.
The bomb-building project was top secret, but solving large energy issues will
likely require international collaboration, he said.
"We will develop ideas and sell them to the world," Mason said.
Alexander believes he can find broad support for big goals that can lead to
"grand consequences" and "real scientific breakthroughs." The National Academy
of Sciences and Department of Energy want to participate.
But some question Alexander's objectives and his timing.
"Strangely, he is not mentioning wind power in that equation," said Gil
Melear-Hough of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "That is not terribly
shocking (Alexander is a wind opponent), even though it is probably the most
competitive and most established technology available."
And fusion energy, Melear-Hough said, "is a great theory, but if it will be
available in 20 years that would be an incredible accomplishment. To be talking
about it now, as far as dealing with our problems, is silly."
Mike Padgett, a Democrat running for Alexander's Senate seat, said
Alexander's plan was "an election-year reinvention" of himself to win votes. "In
five years as a United States senator, he has done nothing that would prevent
the pain we're feeling now at the pump," Padgett said.
Padgett said he would end "the tax breaks enjoyed by Big Oil and apply the
revenue to a trust fund that will help innovators develop alternatives to
foreign oil and more gas-efficient vehicles."
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