By Eric Berman
9/21/2009
Energy experts at a conference at IUPUI agree the U.S. needs to reduce its dependence on foreign oil, but say there's no simple way to replace it yet.
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Dennis McGinn with the Center for Naval Analysis says the U.S. should pursue relatively cheap energy alternatives -- he points to clean-coal technology as just one promising area, if plans for minimizing carbon emissions work as planned.
"There isn't any one silver bullet to solve our problems of energy security and climate security," McGinn told a crowd at Indiana Senator Richard Lugar's annual energy security conference. "But there is some silver buckshot (which) needs to constitute a portfolio of energy solutions.
Lugar says the U.S. needs to tackle the problem now so an oil shock doesn't torpedo any recovery once it starts.
Lugar also warned of economic damage from the cap-and-trade bill passed by the House earlier this year. The Republican senator says even if backers are right in estimating the proposal would shrink the economy by less than two-percent, an financial hit of that size is "far from benign." And Lugar says coal-heavy Indiana would be among the states hardest hit.
Lugar is co-sponsoring a bill to encourage homeowners to make their houses more energy efficient, a step he says would produce environmental gain with less economic pain.
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