Photo by Mike Maddock Frederick Smith, vice president of The Institute for 21st Century Energy, answers questions at the Columbia Rotary Club meeting. Frederick Smith is vice president of The Institute for 21st Century Energy, a new group based in Washington, D.C., addressing the energy crisis head- on. Smith's superior, president and CEO of the Institute, General James L. Jones, USMC (retired), was in Columbia about a year ago with New Jersey's former governor, Christine Todd Whitman. Whitman was also President Bush's (#43) administrator of the EPA during his first term, where she advocated environmental concerns a bit ahead of the administration's concerns. She left the EPA after two- and- a- half years.

Gen. Jones and Whitman were advocating more nuclear energy as a direction the country needed to take to resolve its energy challenges. Whitman is co- chair (with Dr. Patrick Moore, a founding official of Greenpeace) of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, through which she voices a stronger future role for nuclear power in the U.S.

Even though he was not introduced as such, Smith, presumably, is funded by the nuclear energy interests, the same source of support identified by Whitman and Smith's boss, Gen. Jones, last year.

Smith was in the U.S. Navy, 1969- 1972, and soon after he got out, he was in the 5 am gas lines during the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973. The U.S. in 1973 was importing 30 percent of its oil, and the word went forth from the White House, "by 1980, the U.S. will no longer depend on any imported oil." Today, about 70 percent of the country's oil is imported.

Smith lamented the imbalance of too much politics and not enough policy. The energy crisis and the unacceptable dependence on foreign oil don't appear to be under much national policy direction for correction. Smith offered a few new directions.

To start, recognize the next best source of new energy is the energy that can be saved every day. Embrace efficiency, he urged. But after that, the obvious step to take is in new exploration combined with new technology so cleaner use of carbon fuels allows for further use of proven and presumed reserves.

Smith identified four categories for concern.

(1) Stop the waste.

Forty percent of the country's energy consumption is in buildings, and buildings can be made far more energy efficient. The power for the buildings comes from power utilities, companies that need incentives, and new regulatory models to reduce distribution of power. Equip homes with smart meters to track usage and reduce usage. One simple idea is to replace the incandescent light bulb, which uses only three percent of its energy to actually produce light. The other 97 percent is lost, somehow.

(2) Increase and diversify sources of energy supply.

Hydrogen fuel cells, for instance, are slowly coming to the surface as a practical and affordable new supply of electric power, but the fuel cells are not here yet. Still, Smith offered kudos to USC and its Innovista for the pioneering efforts to develop hydrogen fuel cell power. Smith endorsed coal as a plentiful supply, but the technology to sequester the carbon is still too expensive. Tax incentives with some consistency and reliability could help further the research into a cleaner coal. There's enough coal in the U.S. for another 200 years. There's plenty of coal and there's plenty of oil, if we can just get to it and clean it. The ban on offshore drilling beyond a 50- mile limit was to be lifted Sept. 30, but Smith wanted the states to get a bigger piece of the action to encourage more governmental cooperation. Going nuclear to the point the U.S. gets 30 percent of its power from nuclear plants instead of the current 20 percent is a practical and doable goal. S.C. gets more than 50 percent of its electric power from nuclear plants, while France gets 80 percent.

(3) The U.S. must modernize and protect its energy infrastructure.

Currently it's outmoded across the country. Government decision makers and the population as a whole need more effective education telling us how far behind we are and how far we need to go.

(4) Improve environmental stewardship.

Reach out for advanced environmental controls. Global leadership must be demonstrated and appreciated. Places like China and India, where coal- burning power plants are under construction at an alarming rate, are essentially nullifying efforts over here to slow global pollution and its consequent warming. Over the next eight years, China plans to build more coal- burning power plants than it built in the past eight years, combining for something like 1,000 coal- burning power plants. And the Indians are about to beat that.

Smith looks forward to the next few months when the country gets a new president and a new Congress. His speech is practiced and ready for new audiences.