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 Bodman: Weaning America from foreign oilNo simple solution for power problems, U.S. energy secretary writesBy Samuel W. Bodman Editor's note: Samuel W. Bodman is U.S. secretary of energy.  Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman says more nuclear power plants are needed to meet U.S. energy needs. SPECIAL REPORTWASHINGTON (CNN) -- The summer heat has left Americans cranking up their air conditioners, leaving power companies scrambling to keep up with the surging demand for electricity. Meanwhile, high demand for oil around the globe and political instability in parts of the world are keeping the price of gasoline uncomfortably high, issuing, in essence, an unbudgeted tax on American families. And on Sunday night, we saw corrosion in a pipeline system in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, require the possible shut-in of crude oil supply, which could diminish our domestic production by up to 400,000 barrels a day. What we are seeing is the culmination of years of unfocused direction and lack of investment in new technologies and energy infrastructure. To strengthen our nation's energy security, it will take years of work and specific upgrades throughout the energy sector. Thankfully, that work is already under way. Over the past five years, the Bush administration has taken steps to improve energy efficiency, make our energy infrastructure more secure and reliable, and increase the domestic supply of energy through alternative and renewable sources. This week, we celebrate the first anniversary of President Bush's signing of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 -- the first comprehensive energy legislation in more than a decade. The long-term strategy laid out in the act takes a crucial step toward realizing the president's goals of reducing our dependence on foreign sources of oil and reinventing the way we power our homes, businesses and vehicles. First, through the Energy Policy Act, energy-efficiency standards are being raised for appliances and industrial equipment. In addition, a host of tax incentives are encouraging consumers to choose energy-efficient products, including Energy Star-labeled ones, for their homes and businesses. Second, we are modernizing our energy infrastructure, particularly the electricity grid, to meet the demands of a growing economy and population. Electricity congestion is challenging the reliable delivery of power to homes and businesses. The congestion study my department released this week kicks off the national effort to identify and remedy electric congestion and is a crucial step toward modernizing our electric power delivery system. Third, in conjunction with the president's Advanced Energy Initiative, the act is helping us to expand and diversify the energy we produce here at home. This includes incentives for new electricity generation through nuclear and clean coal plants as well as efforts to bring cost-effective solar and wind energy to the market and also provide more home-grown biofuels -- such as E-85 and biodiesel -- to families in the United States. Over the last two weeks, I have held events across the country highlighting progress since the president signed into law this national strategy in August 2005. Last week, I visited Joliet, Illinois, where I announced a $250 million investment for two bioenergy research centers, which will accelerate the development of cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels. This will help reduce our reliance on foreign sources of oil, while giving farmers across the country another use for their crops. This means more jobs in the U.S. and less dependence on foreign sources of energy. Then on Friday, I traveled to the Georgia Power Co., which is a Southern Co. subsidiary, one of the nation's largest suppliers of electricity. There I talked to employees and the electricity industry about the need for cleaner, safer and relatively inexpensive nuclear fuel. We have more than 100 nuclear plants in this country, and they supply more than 20 percent of the nation's electricity, but we haven't built a new nuclear power plant in more than 30 years. To help spur the growth of nuclear power, I announced a $2 billion federal-risk insurance program that, I hope, will speed up the nuclear renaissance in this country. Earlier this week, Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich and I cut the ribbon at a new E-85 fueling facility in Baltimore, where I announced the launch of a $2 billion loan guarantee program. This funding will help bring about additional capital investment in the most promising clean-energy technologies that will someday power our nation. More details on these programs, as well as other progress and highlights of the Energy Policy Act, are available in a brochure published by our department and available on our Web site We are undoubtedly reaching the goals set forth in the Energy Policy Act, but our success will not be achieved overnight. We recognize that these challenges took a long time to create and will take a number of years to correct. Yet through this administration's focused strategy, we will continue to light the path toward a stable and prosperous energy future. What is your take on this commentary? E-mail us The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer. This article is part of a series of occasional opinion pieces on CNN.com that offer a broad range of perspectives that express a variety of thoughts and points of view. Your responsesCNN.com asked readers for their thoughts on Samuel Bodman's commentary. We received a lot of excellent responses. Below you will find a small selection of those e-mails, some of which have been edited for length and spelling. Lots of good steps, but it needn't take as long as he says. Take the money wasted in Iraq, or the tax cuts for the top 1 percent, and you could reduce CO2 emissions in half in one year. For example, solar electricity farms covering an area the size of Connecticut could supply 200 percent of the nation's electricity needs (backup for cloudy days) -- that's an area less than one-quarter the size of the Texas panhandle. And once it's built, the energy is practically free forever. Not enough is being done to increase fuel efficiency in all vehicles, including trucks and SUVs. The technology is there to increase it to 40 mph. That would eliminate the need for attempts to extract oil from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I would also like to see incentives for purchase of high efficiency vehicles rather than incentives for large vehicles and trucks, as currently exists. It is time for the governments of Canada and the USA to mandate and support ... the construction of new nuclear plants in North America. This does not mean commission a study to see if it's environmentally feasible. It means get off your butts and start building. We may not learn until the lights go off ... it takes years to build these plants. It's a matter of national security ... not minority choice. Living in the Southwest, I am constantly reminded that the vast majority of homes in the mostly sunny desert are not solar powered. We could drastically cut down on energy dependence if instead of spending billions of dollars on nuclear energy were put into solar, we could increase the efficiency of solar panels and assistance to help offset the costs. I say those that want to fund and vote for nuclear energy must agree to allow nuclear waste be put in their neighborhoods and political districts since nuclear power is so "safe and environmentally sound." I think Mr. Bodman is on the right track and it (the energy plan detailed in his report) must be followed up and continually under review for progress. While not specifically stated, there should be time frames attached to all goals in the plan. Just as President Kennedy said in the beginning of his term in the White House that we should have a man on the moon before the beginning of the next decade, we did. We have to inspire ourselves and be inspired by men of reason, leadership and vision. Without this, our energy policy's, however well intentioned, will fail on the political horizon. Therefore, our president should challenge our country to be free of our oil dependence by 2015. Or sooner. It sounds like political rhetoric to me. There is no reason the federal government cannot set a goal of having 20, 30, 40 percent of our energy needs being met by renewable sources in the next 20, 30, 40 years. There are so many solutions out there, but the political will to really change is not in Washington. While one can applaud the effort to reinvigorate the nuclear industry and use our homegrown coal, it does little to address the paramount issue. Nearly two-thirds of our imported energy is used directly in our transportation system. Energy self-sufficiency is as easy as changing that fuel. Hybrids and ethanol are only a means of stretching oil and does nothing to effect the paradigm change in thinking this great nation needs. The question must change from how to drill, refine, import, beg borrow steal more oil to how to get our transportation system running on a different fuel. Until that happens, America will be embroiled in constant strife over this dwindling resource. Serious redirection and restoration of this nation's energy health will take much more substantial measures. For example, the federal fuel efficiency requirements for automobiles still remain embarrassingly low and it is clear this administration is not serious about leading our nation out of its addiction to oil. Finally, somebody sees the desperate need for more nuclear plants to free us both of dangerous foreign oil as well as the problems of carbon-based fuel. ... Windmills and waterfalls are a pittance. A Manhattan Project on nuclear fusion needs to be done. Too little, too late! Brazil implemented their energy strategy 25 years ago and they are reaping the benefits today. These measures should have been started in the 1970s right after the oil embargo when it was genuinely clear that the eventual situation was going to be exactly what is happening to the United States today. So I personally blame five administrations for the problems that exist today and the oil lobby in Washington. They all get Fs on their handling of the future of U.S. energy sources and we, the U.S. public, get to cry about it today. 
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