Letter to President George Bush
Letter
April 10, 2007
Dear President Bush:
We are writing to urge you to develop and implement a comprehensive bilateral U.S.-China energy policy. As the world's two largest energy importing nations, the U.S. and China are both negatively impacted by high oil and gas prices and have a common interest in avoiding global supply shocks and lessening reliance on supplies from unstable regions of the world.
We appreciate that previous efforts have been made in this area, including bilateral discussions in 1997 and 1998, and we support the ongoing cabinet-level U.S. China Energy Dialogue that is part of the U.S. China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED). However, we believe more must be done to address this critical issue.
In 2000, Congress chartered the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission to report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the two countries. In its 2006 Annual Report to Congress, the Commission recommended support for the Administration's current energy policy dialogues with China, but also called on Congress to "urge the Administration to seek additional opportunities for the United States to assist China to increase energy efficiency, reduce pollution from energy consumption, and facilitate the use of alternative fuels."
We believe a cooperative, mutually-beneficial energy policy could help avoid future tensions between the U.S. and China over limited and geographically constrained energy resources. In addition, both nations would profit from a more diverse array of clean energy sources including wind, solar, biofuels, and clean coaland the increased productivity and cost-savings associated with adopting energy efficiency technologies. Moreover, modernizing China's domestic energy infrastructure will require an estimated $35 billion per year for the foreseeable future, providing a tremendous opportunity to export existing and emerging American technologies, products, and services, and lessen our nation's trade deficit.
Given these common challenges and the short- and long-term benefits to the United States, we hope you will consider holding a U.S.-China summit as soon as this year. Last fall, China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) committed to visiting Washington state in 2007 to explore U.S. clean energy technology, and we hope you will build and expand on this opportunity.
The way we approach global energy issues will affect the international economy and the world's environment for decades to come. China's energy use has grown at 15 percent per year and is slated to become the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter by 2009. A bilateral U.S. - China energy policy and a summit between our nations focused on ways to cooperate on energy issues would have tremendous economic, environmental, and security benefits for both our nations. We look forward to working with you toward these ends.
Sincerely,
Maria Cantwell, Jeff Bingaman, Max Baucus, Joe Biden, Joe Lieberman, Dianne Feinstein, Ron Wyden, Gordon Smith, George Voinovich, John Kerry, Patty Murray, and Lisa Murkowski.
Source