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Dow Chemical strove last week to keep energy high on the U.S. agenda in the face of the recent free fall in oil and natural gas prices by issuing a blueprint for a comprehensive overhaul of U.S. energy policy.

“The new administration and Congress will need to implement a plan that includes all possible options to meet the energy challenges facing the United States,” says Dow chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris, “Greater energy efficiency coupled with an acceleration of alternative sources of energy, including renewables, clean coal, and nuclear, with increased domestic, environmentally friendly production of oil and natural gas, should be the major touchstones of any compr ehensive strategy.”

The plan contends that a comprehensive energy policy must achieve eight goals: aggressive energy efficiency and conservation; speed more renewable energy to market; make commercial-scale alternatives a priority; encourage more domestic oil and gas production; optimize the carbon efficiency of coal; prove the viability of carbon capture and storage; accelerate the deployment of nuclear technology; and recognize from the outset the interrelationship between energy policy and climate solutions. Dow had made the plan available earlier to both presidential candidates during the campaign, and Liveris has personally raised the issue with officials of both campaigns, according to Dow.

Dow says the effort needs to be bold and bipartisan. “The half-measures Congress has passed in recent years aren’t enough, and the effort needs to be bipartisan because there is too much at stake to make this a partisan issue designed to appeal to a narrow set of constituencies,” Dow says.

Dow’s move should be welcomed as the rapid drop in oil prices threatens to sap the urgency from needed action on energy policy. The U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) slashed its 2009 oil and natural gas forecast prices last week. The EIA now forecasts a 2009 average West Texas Intermediate price for oil of $63.50/bbl, down from $112/bbl just one month earlier. The projected 2009 annual average Henry Hub natural gas price is $6.82/million cu ft, compared with $8.17/million cu ft in the previous month. “These declines are one reason Dow is going public now,” says Richard Wells, Dow v.p./energy. “We don’t want to be in a position where gasoline falls below $2/gal, and people are no longer concerned. We know energy prices will come back.”

—robert westervelt robw@chemweek.com

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