Interior Secretary Gale Norton
National Energy Policy Town Hall Meeting
Augustana College, Sioux Fall, SD, July 16th, 2001

Thank you, Representative Thune. Representative Thune is highly involved in helping our country develop a national energy policy.

He's been instrumental in helping us form legislation to help families stuck in the energy crunch. You are all lucky to have him in Washington working for you.

Thank you, President Halverson for hosting this town hall meeting on your beautiful campus. Thanks to each of you here today for participating. I look forward to hearing your perspectives and ideas.

After just two weeks in office, President Bush put together a task force dedicated to find solutions to our nation's energy problems. In May, the President released his National Energy Policy. The plan contains 105 recommendations.

Over half of the recommendations are dedicated to increasing energy efficiency and conservation, encouraging the development of fuel-efficient vehicles and encouraging renewable energy with tax incentives.

Over the next 20 years, even with an increased conservation effort, U.S. oil consumption will rise 33 percent, natural gas will grow more than 50 percent and demand for electricity will rise 45 percent. We now rely on foreign imports for almost 60 percent of our oil.

Already families are feeling the effects. Last winter, heating bills for many families tripled. Average natural gas heating costs in the Midwest rose 75 percent.

Farm production costs are skyrocketing because of higher energy prices. Surging natural gas prices have increased fertilizer prices by 90 percent since 1998.

Still, one question on the minds of many involved in the energy debate is why many Americans don't believe we are in an energy crisis. The answer is that Americans have a core belief in American ingenuity.

American ingenuity is a major factor in everything from our military victories and status as the only remaining superpower, our development of cures for once-deadly diseases and our ability to vastly improve our air and water quality.

American ingenuity is directly tied to our technological advancements. Nothing puts our nation's skills to the test like a challenge - a challenge like the one we face today to ensure a comprehensive energy strategy.

This ingenuity is already hard at work right here in South Dakota. This state has three ethanol plants producing 31 million gallons of the renewable fuel each year.

Ethanol reduces tailpipe carbon monoxide emissions by as much as 30 percent. It also helps the economy of the upper plains, by producing jobs and another market for corn.

Another example of American ingenuity is taking place in the Gulf of Mexico. You may have read about the recent dialogue about whether or not my Department would continue a Clinton Administration initiative and expand energy production off the coast of Alabama.

Since 1985 energy producers in the Gulf of Mexico's Outer Continental Shelf produced more than five billion barrels of oil.

Thanks to American ingenuity and high tech advances, of that amount, only .001 percent - just 1/1000th of a percent - was released. By comparison, naturally occurring oil seeps in the Shelf are 150 times greater than OCS production.

President Bush addresses the need to keep our economy moving forward with good jobs, and our determination to protect our environment. The underlying basis of this report is that our energy problem is inextricably tied to each of our lives.

For example, household budgets are stretched to the limits by high winter heating and summer air-conditioning bills and increasingly expensive trips to the gas station.

What difficult choices are families forced to make? Whether to maintain the family car? Buy back-to-school clothes? Purchase essential prescription drugs? Update equipment on the farm?

Now, think about what rising energy costs are doing to the budgets of our schools and our hospitals. What essential services are being cut to pay energy bills?

The President has also directed my Department to work with Congress to develop environmentally safe leasing of oil and gas in a small portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - called the 1002 Area. The President's plan emphasizes that Congress should require the use of the best available technology and ensure that energy production activities protect the 1002 environment.

Domestic development of resources is not a substitute for renewable and alternative energy sources, and it is not an alternative for energy efficiency.

One cannot suggest that development of our domestic resources will prevent the need to import oil. However, domestic production will help us keep energy prices low and protect families from wild fluctuations.

Last week the Department of the Interior announced it will bring state and local officials together with industry leaders and other citizens for a Renewable Energy Summit.

The summit will take place this fall and will focus on ways to maximize wind, solar and geothermal energy production on public lands to help stabilize our nation's energy needs.

South Dakota, for example, has future opportunities to expand wind production. The Administration's energy plan supports extending and broadening tax incentives for wind energy.

Our country faces a national energy problem, but it can be managed. Today we're getting ideas and feedback today in Sioux Falls and in town hall meetings across America.

One thing is clear: American ingenuity has never let us down in the past, and by acting wisely today, it will help us provide for future generations.

Now, I'll turn it over to Representative Thune, and we'll get your ideas and perspectives.