Washington, D.C. – FedEx Corporation Chairman, President and CEO Frederick W. Smith and 34th U.S. Marine Corps Commandant James Conway (Ret.) joined by special guests today released a comprehensive pathway to bolstering America’s oil security. The National Strategy for Energy Security: The Innovation Revolution offers a range of solutions to the challenges created by recurring extreme oil price volatility, exacerbated by the anti-market conduct of foreign governments and national oil companies.
“This National Strategy details the enormous continued risks to our economy and national security posed by our dependence on oil to fuel transportation,” said Energy Security Leadership Council co-Chair and FedEx Chairman, President and CEO Frederick W. Smith. “We’re on the cusp of the largest ground transportation transformation since the invention of the Model T, and we must ensure that unnecessary and outdated regulations don’t encumber its potential. Through a wholly new value proposition that promises a fundamental shift in how we move people and goods, autonomous vehicles will accelerate the adoption of advanced fuel vehicles while making our roads safer and our transportation system far more efficient,” Smith added.
A project of Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) and co-Chaired by Mr. Smith and General Conway, the Energy Security Leadership Council (Council) is an alliance of business and retired military leaders dedicated to mitigating the severe threat of oil dependence to America’s economic prosperity and national security.
The National Strategy calls on government to support, rather than hinder, the innovation revolution now underway, one in which connected, autonomous vehicles powered by advanced fuels like electricity and natural gas end the monopoly of and drastically reduce demand for oil in the transportation sector while virtually eliminating crash fatalities and granting new mobility to millions of Americans.
To advance the next generation of transportation technologies, the Council issued several recommendations:
These were supplemented with policy recommendations to accelerate the adoption of advanced fuel vehicles powered by diverse energy sources:
These recommendations were highlighted at Thursday’s event, which featured special guests ranging from Silicon Valley to the Oil Patch, including Google Self-Driving Cars CEO John Krafcik, Congressman Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Waste Management, Transdev North America, Peloton Technology, NVIDIA Corporation, and moovel Group.
The report also highlights the strategic importance of the United States’ vast oil and gas resources and advocates for the responsible and safe production of oil on currently closed-off federal lands, including in the Arctic and portions of the Outer Continental Shelf.
“Americans should have a choice of many transportation fuels, but in the meantime, taking advantage of our own abundant resources will allow us to better prepare ourselves for oil price shocks and supply disruptions in unstable oil producing regions, like the Middle East or Venezuela,” said Energy Security Leadership Council co-Chair and 34th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps General James T. Conway (Ret.). “True fuel diversity, combined with smart stewardship of our domestic resources will help ensure that we are no longer forced to put our servicemen and women into harm’s way to keep the supply of oil flowing, and by relying less on this strategic commodity for our mobility, we will be able to make smarter foreign policy decisions while asserting our military more effectively, and only when necessary.”
The Council recommended policies that would take advantage of increased U.S. oil production to improve American energy security and combat manipulation of the global oil market:
The National Strategy for Energy Security: The Innovation Revolution is available online at SAFE’s website.
About Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE)
Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) is a nonpartisan organization that aims to reduce America’s dependence on oil and improve U.S. energy security to bolster national security and strengthen the economy. SAFE advocates for expanded domestic production of U.S. oil and gas resources, continued improvements in fuel efficiency, and in the long-term, breaking oil’s stranglehold on the transportation sector through alternatives like natural gas for heavy-duty trucks and plug-in electric vehicles. In 2006, SAFE joined with General P.X. Kelley (Ret.), 28th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, and Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President, and CEO of FedEx Corporation, to form the Energy Security Leadership Council (ESLC), a group of business and former military leaders committed to reducing U.S. oil dependence.
###
1111 19th Street, NW #406, Washington, DC 20036