Carter pushes energy reform plan to Congress

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former President Carter warned members of Congress on Tuesday that America’s failure to achieve energy independence is threatening the country’s national security, undermining its long-term potential for economic growth and contributing to global warming.

“Collectively, nothing could be more important than this question of energy,” Carter said during a rare presidential appearance before a congressional committee.

“I would guess that our entire status as a leading nation in the world will depend on the role that we play in energy and environment in the future.”

Carter, who in 1977 famously declared the fight for energy independence to be “the moral equivalent of war,” told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that reaching that goal is crucial to ending the country’s “vulnerability to possible pressures and blackmail.”

CNN