“It Begins with Energy”—Council on Competitiveness Applauds President’s Commitment to Energy Investment

President Barack Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night directly addressed key recommendations from Prioritize, The Council’s 100-Day Energy Action Plan for the new administration. This energy roadmap, which benefitted from the leadership of former Council on Competitiveness member and current Secretary of Energy Steve Chu, clearly aligns with the President’s priorities.

The Council’s membership of CEOs, university presidents and labor leaders is committed to seeing these key recommendations for the new energy economy fully implemented, and is pleased that fully funding research and development, expanding transmission, elevating efficiency and strengthening U.S. manufacturing were given strong emphasis in the President’s address.

Deborah L. Wince-Smith, president of the Council, hailed President Obama’s call for enlarged investments in basic research and for the jobs and industries of tomorrow to take root here at home. “This administration’s emphasis and priority on basic research and development, as well as the need for our national economic competitiveness to be enhanced with a strengthened domestic manufacturing base, puts our core mission at the front of the national agenda, and justifies the many contributions of leadership our members have been making to this administration.”

Andy Karsner, a distinguished fellow with the Council and immediate past assistant secretary of energy for efficiency and renewable energy with the Department of Energy, called the President’s agenda for renewable energy “ambitious, but achievable; both do-able and desirable. The Council will ensure that concerns of economic development are consistently elevated alongside security and environmental well-being. We will continue to assertively convene the nation’s leadership to support the objective of building out a diversified national hedge of clean energy that bolsters our security, enhances our environment, and accelerates our economic development, job creation, and global competitiveness.”

Led by Jim Owens, chairman and CEO of Caterpillar Inc.; Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; and D. Michael Langford, national president of Utility Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO, the Council’s Energy Security, Innovation & Sustainability Initiative, has been actively engaged on this issue for more than two years.

The Council strongly believes that sustainability and energy transformation can only be achieved through profitability of clean and renewable technology sources. The Council’s leaders from business, labor and academia look forward to active participation from the administration and Congress in the National Energy Summit this fall in Washington to continue the dialogue and robust debate concerning our future energy policies.