Last year, when the hemisphere's foreign ministers met at the OAS General Assembly in Panama, they agreed that "energy is an essential resource for the sustainable development of peoples, and that access to energy that is diverse, reliable, secure, and affordable is of paramount importance to economic growth with equity and social inclusion, and contributes to poverty eradication." This week, countries from around the region met again to continue this important dialogue and identify concrete ways to promote energy security and sustainable development.
As we engage with our neighbours on this effort, the United States is taking action at home, too. Last December, President Bush signed the Energy Security and Independence Act, which requires the United States to use 36 billion gallons of alternative fuels by 2022 - nearly a five-fold increase - and to increase vehicle efficiency standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. This new legislation will reduce our dependence on oil and lead to some of the largest carbon-dioxide emission reductions in our nation's history.

Through the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), the United States, Canada and Mexico are working together to advance North American energy security. The United States has a very strong energy-trading relationship with these countries. Canada is our top foreign supplier of oil, gas, and electricity, and Mexico is our second largest foreign oil supplier. The SPP includes an agreement for cooperation on science and technology, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other areas to further develop clean and sustainable energy.

The United States and Brazil, the world's two largest producers of ethanol, are promoting the development of biofuels industries across the hemisphere. This partnership will diversify energy supplies, strengthen agricultural and energy sectors, and most important, create jobs. Over the past year, the United States and Brazil have begun to provide technical assistance to the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti and St Kitts and Nevis, and to support feasibility studies to help attract private investment. On March 3, senior Brazilian and US officials met with representaives from those four countries and private industry leaders to advance this effort.

That meeting evidenced yet another opportunity to strengthen energy cooperation as OAS members met to continue our inter-American energy dialogue, over 30 official delegations from the Americas attended the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC).
President Bush and over 2,000 delegates, and leaders from civil society, academia, and private industry came together for WIREC: a global forum to promote the rapid uptake and deployment of renewable energy technology.

Beyond these strategic partnerships, the United States has also met in Trinidad and Tobago with Caricom energy officials, and in Honduras with Central American officials. We continually engage with allies, the OAS, Inter-American Development Bank, producers, consumers, international financial institutions, development banks, oil companies, and NGOs - and we want to do more to achieve a more secure energy future for the peoples of our hemisphere.

Energy security is a global and long-term challenge, and key to the hemisphere's prosperity. All of us have an obligation to work together to maintain sufficient, affordable, and reliable energy supplies in a region plagued by poverty, inequality, and social exclusion. The burden of high oil prices disproportionately affects the poorest countries. The lack of access to affordable energy suppresses development, and makes poverty reduction and job creation more difficult.

As Secretary Rice said at the OAS General Assembly last June, "We seek to promote the democratisation of energy in the Americas, increasing the number of energy suppliers, expanding the market, and reducing supply disruption. Our goal should be nothing less than to usher in a new era of inter-American security in energy." It's a long road ahead, but we're on the right path.

Thomas Shannon and Daniel Sullivan are US assistant secretaries of state.

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