Why NEP Initiative?

For three decades, U.S. energy policy has been driven by battles between powerful but narrow constituencies promoting their favorite energy technologies. Largely absent is a clear sense of what nearly everyone agrees about, and how to incorporate those consensus elements into a balanced portfolio.

The central question is how best to deliver to the American people the desired energy services in ways that are secure, reliable, affordable, safe, clean, and fair.

This past spring, one of the new Administration's first initiatives was a national energy strategy. To date, that strategy has not achieved bipartisan support in Congress or broad support across key energy constituencies. The House has passed a bill that closely tracks the Administration's priorities, but with limited Democratic support. In the Senate during the summer and fall, the Energy and Commerce Committee began developing an alternative bill that appeared unlikely to gain broad Republican or constituency support.

The tragic events of September 11 and their aftermath dramatically changed the political landscape in Washington. Congress's attention is now almost completely focused on fighting terrorism. However, some political leaders and opinion leaders in the media have made the case that reducing U.S. dependence on overseas fuel supplies is a critical element of national counter-terrorism policy. Sharp divisions remain, however, among those who advocate accelerated exploration and development of North American fossil fuel supplies; advocates for policies to increase energy efficiency and renewable energy supplies; those who are seeking public support for a new generation of nuclear power plants; and those who argue that Americans must make fundamental changes in lifestyle and consumption patterns to reduce energy use. Congress and the Administration are highly likely to renew the effort to pass comprehensive energy legislation in the spring of 2002. Yet there is no obvious way to break political deadlock on specific issues such as drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; re-allocating funds for research and development among competing supply sources; integrating and regulating the national electricity grid; or developing new energy-efficiency standards for vehicles, appliances and buildings.

The project partners believe that it is possible to break the impasse on national energy policy, but only through an unusual and carefully designed consensus building process. In brief, the NEP Initiative process convened a highly respected and diverse group of national energy policy experts—guided by input from groups with a direct stake in national energy policy, and facilitated by a substantively and procedurally skilled team—to develop a set of guiding principles, overarching objectives, and specific policy proposals. The entire effort is co-sponsored by senior Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress. We are calling this effort the National Energy Policy Initiative (NEP Initiative).

The results of NEP Initiative—a summary of the overall process, a report on the expert workshop, and the experts' points of consensus on principles, objectives and policies—will be disseminated to constituencies involved in national energy policy, members of Congress and the Administration by the beginning of the next session of Congress in February 2002. The Congressional sponsors of the effort may also hold hearings or briefings on the results of the consensus building process. The project partners may also work with a broad-based set of political and constituency leaders on a broader process of outreach and education for the American public.