U.S. energy producers have issued an unprecedented joint declaration of priorities for a comprehensive national energy strategy and committed themselves to lobby Congress and the Bush administration to act on their proposals. The proposals are the outcome of eight months of discussion among leading trade organizations representing the oil industry, natural gas producers, electricity generators and distributors, the coal industry and nuclear power plant operators. Meetings of the trade groups were coordinated by the U.S. Energy Association (USEA), which issued the plan, "Towards a National Energy Strategy." Copies can be obtained by telephoning USEA at 202-312-1230. The plan proposes a wide range of programs that touch on concerns of specific energy-producing industries, as well as their individual needs. Primarily, it suggests improvements that will support greater U.S. energy production and more efficient movement of energy across the country. The program calls for government investment in energy research, tax incentives for investing in new technology and a balanced approach to environmental issues. "This document shows how the energy industry feels that our country's energy problems can be solved in the next decade," says General Richard Lawson, chairman of USEA's National Energy Policy Committee and former president of the National Coal Association. "This is about the rational production and use of energy." Observations in this report about the oil industry's needs reflect the same types of issues that the American Petroleum Institute (API) has been highlighting for the past several years. It forecasts sharp increases in U.S. petroleum imports, cites a need for new refineries, warns of the high costs of meeting environmental regulations, and outlines fuel distribution inefficiencies that clean gasoline and diesel programs create. While these ideas are not new, API president Red Cavaney said that the experiences of gasoline price spikes last year illustrate the types of problems that will arise with greater frequency if national energy policies are not enacted. "Make no mistake, there is going to be some sort of action on these issues in the next few years, as the U.S. energy industry is operating at its maximum level," he says. "Since energy is a key to our economic growth, we will have to do something." Improving the U.S. fuels pipeline system would be one key efficiency measure, Cavaney says. The lack of a pipeline into the Northeast resulted in shortages of heating oil to that area two winters ago. The numerous reformulated gasoline (RFG) and oxygenated fuel formulas required today-"boutique fuels"-create the potential for gasoline shortages to occur. "When the national fuel distribution system was set up, the pipelines were built for one or two grades of each fuel. Under those circumstances, it was easy to rush fuel to an area if there was a disruption," the API president says. "We can't do that now." USEA's Lawson says that all the energy producers who worked on the report are committed to seeing its recommendations become a reality. This would represent a new level of cooperation among often-warring corporate interests. "Maybe the most important thing that we realized in developing this strategy is that we are not each other's competitor. Oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear-we should not be fighting each other," he says. "All [the different energy-producing industries] are going to Capitol Hill shoulder-to-shoulder on these policies."