Richard G. Lugar, Statesman of the Senate: Crafting Foreign Policy from Capitol Hill

5 Ending the American Addictionto Foreign Oil

5 Ending the American Addiction to Foreign Oil I On a cold, windy late October day in 2006, Richard Lugar sat in a small storefront office in Fowler, Indiana, sipping coffee from a Styro­ foam cup and listening to a discussion about the power of wind. Seated next to two state legislators, Lugar paid close attention as Wayne Hoff­ man, the president of Orion Energy, walked through a detailed Power­ Point presentation about the potential of a wind farm, then under con­ struction in Benton County, a farming community in central Indiana. Hoffman made the case that wind energy could be critical to the future of the state while also producing profits for his company. Wind energy, he said, is a free, inexhaustible, and widely available domestic resource. It generates electricity in a way that does not pollute the air or water, nor does it emit greenhouse gases. Hoffman argued that wind energy is a hedge against continuing increases in the cost of fossil fuels and increasing restrictions on pollution from fossil fueled power plants. Moving from the big picture to the specific, Hoffman pointed out that Orion’s project in Benton County could be a significant energy and economic asset for the town of Fowler and the surrounding area. He walked through the details of the project and said that if all went well, Orion might be interested in building up to eight hundred towers with wind generators, making the Benton County wind farm the largest in x Richard G. Lugar, Statesman of the Senate 74 the United States, and might build additional farms in Indiana if this project was successful. Lugar nodded his head politely throughout the presentation and asked probing, politely stated questions. The senator observed that based on his study of the numbers it would initially cost Orion more to produce electricity than the firm would get for selling it. How long was this sustainable from Orion’s perspective? When did it expect to turn a profit on the Benton project? “You have a great eye for detail,” Hoffman said and then launched into a lengthy discourse on how Orion would recover its expenses over time and eventually make money. Lugar had more questions about the company, the project, and its financial implications for central Indiana. He knew, for example, that the firm was anticipating the renewal of a federal tax credit and the implementation of a state or federal rule mandating the use of renew­ able energy to generate a certain amount of electricity. Such actions were possible but not certain. Nonetheless, Lugar remained upbeat and encouraging and said the project that Hoffman was describing would propel Indiana in a positive direction. He emphasized his “fascination and now enthusiasm and almost evangelical attitude” toward renew­ able energy alternatives. Developing these renewables, he said, would be critical to the country’s and Indiana’s future prosperity. “In Indiana we have a lot of catching up to do. That’s why I’m so passionate about it, trying to push everyone to the nth degree.” Broadening the discussion and connecting the resources in Indi­ ana with the global politics of energy and his work on the Senate For­ eign Relations Committee, Lugar recalled a meeting he had with Col. Muammar Qaddafi in a tent in the Libyan desert to talk about oil and globalpolitics.Thelocalgovernmentofficials,farmers,businessleaders, and local press sat up in their chairs as Lugar described his encounter with Qaddafi. The details of the conversation were less interesting than the image of the senator from Indiana huddled in a tent in Libya with Qaddafi. But Lugar made his main point clearly and forcefully. “We are living in a world in which we are not going to have these oil reserves for­ ever. Rather than having a big crisis in Indiana or the United States, the wind is blowing here; they can’t take that away from us. This is ours. So is the corn in our fields and the soybeans. It’s here and now. We should Ending the American Addiction to Foreign Oil 75 begin to forge our own energy independence. Some of us will have to push and shove very hard,” he said. Lugar thanked Hoffman and those at the meeting for providing him with an education on wind energy. “I’m hoping to hear about other windmills soon. We’re on the threshold of someverypromisingthings.”1 TheBentonCountyWindFarmbegan commercial operation in...