Bush and Kerry: Competing Visions for U.S. Energy Policy

Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, Fall 2004 by Hayes, David, Garman, David

Our format calls for ten minutes for our speakers to present their positions and tell us what they would like to talk about. Winner of the coin toss and first up will be our first representative, David Hayes. David Hayes is currently a partner in the law firm of Latham and Watkins. He has been serving as an energy and environmental advisor for the Kerry campaign for more than a year. Mr. Hayes was a Deputy secretary of the Interior for the second term of the Clinton administration. As Deputy secretary, Mr. Hayes had authority over oil and gas drilling activities on federal lands as well as operational responsibility overall of the Interior Department's Bureaus, including the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Minerals Management Service, the National Park Service and the United States Geological Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service. David Hayes.

DAVID HAYES: PRESENTATION

David Hayes: Thank you very much Ira, and I would also like to thank the Sustainable Energy Institute for putting on this forum and providing this opportunity for what I hope will be an interesting and engaging exchange of views. I'm here representing John Kerry and his campaign for President. You're hearing a lot about John Kerry in terms of energy because John Kerry is talking about energy on most of his campaign stops. He feels very strongly about it and there are several reasons for it. In a nutshell, John Kerry believes that in order to have a strong, viable, and economically sound America, we need a supply of affordable, clean, and secure energy. Under the Bush administration, John Kerry believes we've been heading in the wrong direction and that we've become more dependent than ever on Middle East oil, with most of it coming from the most volatile area of the Middle East, the Persian Gulf. That dependence is putting America at risk both in terms of economic security and national security.

From a national security perspective, it's painfully obvious that relying on oil from this volatile region is not sound national security policy. The huge transfers of wealth that we are sending to the Middle East-U.S. $20 billion each year is being spent by Americans on oil from the Persian Gulf-makes us dangerously dependent upon that region, and in the past, some ofthat money has been used to finance terrorism back against the United States. As John Kerry said as recently as Monday in Denver, under his administration, "no man or woman in uniform will be put in harm's way because the U.S. needs to protect its interest in foreign-based oil supplies."

From an economic perspective as well, John Kerry feels strongly that our reliance on imported oil is bad for our country. We've all seen the price spikes at the pumps as we've filled up over the last several months in particular. The 30% increase in gasoline prices through the Bush administration is hurting the American consumer. The average American is paying U.S. $300 more a year on gasoline for their cars and trucks, taking about 60% of their tax cut back from them. The costs to the economy are multiplied. Farmers are paying more than a billion dollars more for their gas supplies, truck drivers U.S. $6 billion, airlines U.S. $7 billion. The ripple effect through the economy is very, very harmful. John Kerry recognizes that this is a serious problem and that it's only going to get worse. Looking out toward the future, we're entering now a global economy with increasing competition for these same oil supplies that we are having to import and having to pay more for. The Chinese economy, for example, is revving up. If you compare the first quarter oil requirements in China for 2004 versus 2003, up 20% and they are buying cars like crazy. We have new competitors for this global commodity, most of which is coming from the Persian Gulf.