By: Peter Ogden, National Security Analyst

One year ago yesterday Congress finalized the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Yet it is hard to find anyone who would say that our country’s energy security has increased over that time. To the contrary: In a recent bi-partisan survey of leading foreign policy experts, nearly two-thirds of respondents said that our existing energy policy has had a negative effect on U.S. national security. 82 percent of respondents said that reducing our dependence on foreign oil should be our government’s highest priority.

The Bush administration must finally recognize that Dick Cheney’s 2001 effort to drill our way to energy security has failed. Unfortunately, while the administration is more than happy to lament America’s addiction to oil and the way energy politics “warp� foreign policy, it has yet to put forth a viable strategy for insuring our energy security.

There is a way forward, however, and it is one that both Democrats and Republicans can support. At an event yesterday at the Center for American Progress, the high-level National Security Task Force on Energy released Energy Security in the 21st Century, a strategy that tackles a range of energy security issues – from oil dependence to nonproliferation to global warming. Click here to read the report.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 27th, 2006 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Economy/Budget, Energy/Environment, Politics .