Letter: Congress needs to act on fuel efficiency

Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2007 | 7:07 a.m.

I hope Harry Reid, in his commentary published in Sunday's Las Vegas Sun, means what he says about trying to achieve energy independence. But the effort will require hard choices beyond just taxing the oil companies and funding research for alternative fuels.

As alluring as they sound, alternative fuels will not be cheap and they will not be plentiful enough to replace a significant amount of the oil we import. Oil, coal and natural gas are very concentrated forms of energy that exist in nature. Anything that has to be manufactured will consume energy when it is made, and will cost more. The ethanol craze we are now seeing only exists because it is being subsidized by taxpayers. The real cost is higher and it is a less efficient automotive fuel than gasoline.

Alternative fuels will help, but cost and availability will limit their impact. Wind and solar power are limited by the weather. The major opportunities for making significant progress boil down to reducing gasoline consumption and replacing gas-fired power plants with nuclear power.

The enthusiasm of the new Congress is refreshing, and this could be a great opportunity to achieve meaningful progress. But if they are serious about our energy future, they must significantly increase automotive fuel-efficiency requirements and implement a program to start building nuclear power plants. Otherwise, this will turn into just another political sound bite and the country will suffer more than it needs to.

Tom Keller, Henderson