The costs of scaling alternative renewables and the related complexities of climate change legislation are obstructing efforts to pass a comprehensive energy measure through Congress this year.  In the words of the April 27^th Politico headline, “Cap and trade hits speed bumps.”

A subcommittee markup of landmark climate legislation has been postponed, with many expressing concerns about the impact on jobs and competitiveness.

These developments reveal the unavoidable trade-offs of energy policy.  Each resource option compels concessions on security, economy, and/or environment.  There are no elegant, trade-off free solutions.  A competent national energy policy must recognize, quantify, and balance trade-offs in pursuit not only of greater security, economic growth, and environmental protection, but ultimately political sustainability.  The most destructive course of action on energy is policy volatility.  Leveraging a political moment to pass a highly aggressive set of measures—whether focused on demand or supply—risks the consequences of shifting electoral fortunes.

It is time to move beyond the formulation of economy versus environment.  Rather, building a national energy policy on a foundation of energy security promises to achieve an historic consensus around a set of balanced policies capable of producing broad progress.

Improved energy security through reduced oil dependence is the path to political consensus.  It will contribute to relatively moderate and stable energy prices, a precondition of sustained economic growth.  And such growth will make climate change policy affordable and politically tenable.

The elements of an effective approach: electrify transportation; deploy an adequate transmission grid; increase domestic production responsibly; invest prudently in renewable alternatives; encourage international energy investment and infrastructure security.

The results of these measures would be meaningfully reduced oil dependence, fuel diversity in the transportation sector, and a lower cost of implementing reductions in carbon emissions.

Policymakers should pursue efforts on climate change and conventional energy production.  But they must also be prepared to seize the energy security consensus now emerging as the most certain path to better policy outcomes.

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