Stronger Focus on U.S.-India Energy Cooperation Needed on Capitol Hill

Last week I had the privilege of attending a conference on the strengthening of the U.S.-India bilateral relationship in Washington, D.C. The conference was attended by several important players from both sides, including Indian Ambassador to the U.S. Her Excellency Meera Shankar, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake, Deputy Chief of the Indian Mission Ambassador Arun Singh, as well as Co-Chairs of the Senate India Caucus, Mark Warner (D-VA) and John Cornyn (R-TX). The distinguished speakers all stressed the importance of the Indo-U.S. strategic relationship in today’s political and economic climate. While we were pleased to see some attention focused on the role of energy cooperation in strengthening the partnership, the event underscored the need for more emphasis by political leadership from both countries on the critical and promising issue of clean energy.  

The half-day conference, “U.S. India Relations—A View from Capitol Hill”, hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Senate India Caucus, was held in Washington D.C. on the 9th of June, 2011. The event featured keynote addresses by Senator Mark Warner and Senator John Cornyn.  Both Co-Chairs of the Senate India Caucus emphasized the importance of economic development, education and workforce development, and defense cooperation. Unfortunately, clean energy cooperation and climate change mitigation and adaptation did not rank in their listed priorities for the partnership.

Their remarks were followed by Ambassador Meera Shankar and Assistant Secretary Robert Blake’s presentations on the trajectory of bilateral relations since the Obama-Singh Summit. Both identified energy cooperation as a crucial element of the Indo-U.S. partnership, and highlighted the establishment Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center (JCERDC) as a historic step towards closer energy collaboration.  Ambassador Shankar also said that India was focused on growing its energy efficiency basket, as the government wants to ensure universal access to commercial energy, across all towns and villages. She stressed that the need for more energy creation is enormous, but that that equal emphasis is also being placed on distribution and access.  She noted that India is committed to reducing the cost of commercial energy, in particular solar energy, and that the goal of India’s new National Solar Mission is to make solar power affordable and competitive.

Assistant Secretary Blake drew attention to extraordinary progress that India and U.S. were making in terms of energy security. Referring to the JCERDC’s recent $50 million Funding Opportunity Announcement, he noted that this was the “single most comprehensive, well-integrated and significant bilateral clean energy research and development (R&D) effort in U.S. history.” In addition, he highlighted a $2.5 million Indo-U.S. dollar Science and Technology Endowment Fund that will make awards in the areas of health and digital communication technologies. He also mentioned that the U.S. had set up a new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) monsoon desk in India to help get accurate weather information to Indian farmers during the monsoon season in India.

Additional insights on the security and defense aspects of the Indo-US relationship were provided by a panel comprising Richard Fontaine, Bruce Riedel, Raymond Vickery and Ambassador Karl. F. Inderfurth.  The conference was attended by a wide array of both Indian and U.S. entities.  The common thread through all presentations was the recognition of India and the U.S. as strategic partners, and the growing importance of this partnership in the next few decades. Various speakers emphasized why India and the U.S. were critical to each other in counterbalancing China’s rising power. Several of them noted that the U.S. must step up its ties with India and give it the same priority that China has received in the past. All the speakers made note of the commonalities shared by India and the U.S., including democracy, entrepreneurial spirit, the pursuit of knowledge, and common values as well as interests.

We were happy to see that thought leaders in both governments and in civil society are thinking about the strategic Indo-U.S. partnership and how both countries can work together more closely to address global challenges. One of the most significant of these, of course, is climate change. To successfully combat this, and ensure energy security and equitable energy access in both countries, leaders from both countries will have to identify clean energy cooperation as having a central role in the bilateral relationship.  What we heard last week was a good start, but more voices need to advocate for this on Capitol Hill, more often, and in stronger terms.

(Co-authored by Sachi Singh, Claremont McKenna College)