America stands at the crossroads with respect to energy. On one hand, the old road -- dependent on drilling, mining and burning fossil fuels, and seemingly headed the way of the dinosaurs. On the other, a blueprint for fast-track change that will secure our energy future.
Read on to compare the two paths. Then let's seize the moment, and re-energize America!
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| Standing still on fuel economy standards as average gas mileage of American new cars and trucks sank to its lowest level in 20 years, and Europe, Japan, even China swept ahead of the United States.
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Slashing today's oil use in cars by about one-third within 15 years -- by using off-the-shelf technologies and raising fuel economy standards over the next decade to 40 miles per gallon.
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| Losing thousands of jobs to Japan and Europe by ceding the clean-car market and failing to build fuel-efficient cars.
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Generating more American automaking jobs by giving manufacturers incentives to produce hybrids and other high-efficiency cars and trucks.
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| Asking polluters to voluntarily cut global warming emissions -- this approach has been used for a decade, and U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have increased 14 percent since 1990. It's not working.
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Requiring polluters to cut global warming emissions -- Congress should show some leadership, and make it law.
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| The Bush administration's Clear Skies Initiative -- compared to existing law, it would allow three times more toxic mercury emissions, 50 percent more sulfur emissions and hundreds of thousands more tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides.
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Enforcing the Clean Air Act -- cleaning up power plants would reduce dangerous pollutants saving tens of thousands of lives and avoiding millions of cases of asthma, emphysema and other illnesses.
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| A do-nothing energy policy that would continue to rely on fossil fuels and nuclear power to generate almost 85 percent of America's electricity.
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Passing national renewable energy standards that would require utilities to generate as much as 25 percent of their electricity mix from renewable energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal power.
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| Needlessly cashing in America's natural heritage -- places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Rocky Mountains and Utah's redrock country -- to drill for oil and gas reserves that won't even dent the nation's dependence on foreign oil.
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Reducing our dependence on oil! It can and should be done -- simply using better tires on cars and trucks would save more oil than the Arctic Refuge could ever produce.
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