A new energy frontier explored at summit
RFK Jr. proposed a plan for the next president.
Though the presidential election is still two days away, environmental activist, author and lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has already developed an energy-policy charge for the winner.
He presented his plan - "Energy Policy: The Next President's First Task" - at the Philadelphia Energy Summit yesterday at Holy Family University.
The summit, hosted by the university and CBS Radio, featured vendors of environmentally friendly energy products and vehicles, panel discussions with industry experts, and Kennedy's keynote address.
He did not give an outright endorsement of either presidential candidate, but did say he favored Sen. Barack Obama's environmental policy over Sen. John McCain's, adding that both had merits.
"We've got to start by protecting our environmental resources," Kennedy said.
The refrain of his presentation was that the environment should not be protected simply for the sake of saving plants and wildlife, but because it serves as the bedrock "value system" of both the American way of life and free-market economy.
"If we don't solve our energy issue, we're going to continue down to a path of diminished importance in the world, diminished quality of life for the people of the United States of America," Kennedy said.
He enumerated initiatives that might prevent this decline. One is the abolishment of carbon emissions in the United States.
Kennedy said the United States borrows a billion dollars a day from nations - some hostile to its interests - to import oil. He also said one year without importing oil would free up enough revenue to pay off the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.
Kennedy recommended the elimination of the approximately $1.3 trillion in annual subsidies to the oil industry, calling them a "principal impediment." Instead, he advocated investing in clean sources, such as geothermal energy, that have bolstered the economies of nations such as Iceland and Sweden.
"The first act the new president has to do is invest $150 billion reconstructing our electric grid and building a grid that realigns so that it can reach all of the energy centers," Kennedy said.
Kennedy also called for legal repercussions for those who abuse the "public trust assets" of clean water, food and air.
"When we destroy nature, we diminish ourselves, we impoverish our children," he said.