Sen. Tom Carper

As a "recovering governor," I believe a major role of government is to create a nurturing environment where businesses can grow and create new jobs while also playing by the rules and being good corporate citizens. Nowhere is this role clearer than in our efforts to find new and sustainable sources of energy in the United States.

Our country's dependence on fossil fuels means that we send over $250 billion a year overseas to pay for oil imports, often to countries that don't like us very much. This dependence also exacts an enormous public health cost as we spend billions of dollars annually to treat health problems triggered by air pollution, as well as costing the lives of tens of thousands of Americans every year. Working together, I believe we can find a better way. And if we are smart about it, we can put thousands of Americans to work, while improving our environment for generations to come.

Setting a long-term clean energy goal may be the catalyst our country needs to spur American innovation and production of clean energy technologies, including wind, solar,

Thank you to everyone that has commented to date. So far this has been an excellent discussion with a wide range of opinions and proposals. I would like to focus the conversation on job creation. The United States has been a global leader in clean energy technology innovation. Unfortunately for the most part, our innovations are being mass-produced somewhere else besides this country. We design it and China builds it – costing us jobs and billions of dollars in trade deficits. According to a recent Economic Policy Institute study, we import 10 clean energy technology products from China for every one product we export to China. Will a clean energy standard be enough to create a large clean energy manufacturing base in this country? Or do we need companion policies to help manufacturers – and if so – what are these policies?