Joe Lieberman: “Today Senator Jeffords, Senator Snowe, and I are introducing the Renewable Energy Act of 2001. This is a landmark bill…”

“Today Senator Jeffords, Senator Snowe, and I are introducing the Renewable Energy Act of 2001. This is a landmark bill as it sets a national goal of fueling 20 percent of our electricity generation with renewable energy sources by the year 2020. For our long-term energy policy, setting such a goal is important. In addition to supporting traditional hydrocarbon fuel sources, we must also invest in those sources, like solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass, that will not eventually run dry. Such investments will also significantly lessen our vulnerability to our foreign energy suppliers. Furthermore, nations such as Japan and Denmark have already made great strides in advancing renewable technologies and it is in our economic interest to be able to compete on the international market. While some of the details of the bill need ongoing evaluation and tuning, we should view this bill as stating a goal, not as the detailed road map on how to get there. For example, the definition of renewables needs further attention and expansion. But I believe the Renewable Energy Act sets laudable goals to aspire to and makes a useful statement about our national priorities as we approach the energy debate.”