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October 25, 2005

Sen. Clinton proposes 'Strategic Energy Fund'

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, has proposed taking some of the "unanticipated" profits from oil companies to create a "Stategic Energy Fund" that would help develop alternative energy sources, increase refinery capacity, and improve energy efficiency. She gave a speech today in Washington. Here are excerpts:

I believe that we need to assess the oil companies an alternative energy development fee to be put into the new Strategic Energy Fund. We should design the fee so it is taken solely out of unanticipated profits from the sky high oil prices and ensure that it is not passed on to consumers. It could generate as much as $20 billion a year to help retool our economy and deploy new energy strategies. ...

We need to devise a bipartisan mechanism to make sure that energy companies are contributing their share to America's energy future. I suggest the following fundamental principles:

Reform our energy taxes so that large oil companies who reap huge benefits over the next two years will pay a portion of their profits to fund new tax incentives for those consumers and companies who do want to invest in America's energy future. Companies that choose to invest these profits in refining capacity, efficiency and alternative energy would not be required to pay into the fund.

...Now is the perfect time for oil companies, flush with cash, to transform themselves into energy companies, investing in technologies that will produce profits and increase America's energy independence. British Petroleum and Shell are already taking encouraging steps in this direction. But our country, and our country’s companies, as the world's largest energy consumer and emitter of greenhouse gases, should lead the way.

The full text of her speech is on her Web site. The video is here too..

Posted by Tim Barmann at October 25, 2005 05:27 PM

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Posted by: j. osmanski at October 27, 2005 10:16 AM

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