In tonight’s State of the Union address, President George W. Bush may borrow a few ideas on energy from former President Jimmy Carter. News organizations anticipate part of Bush’s speech will address calls for increased funding of alternative fuels research and less dependence on foreign oil.

Over the weekend, the University held a symposium entitled “The Carter Presidency: Lessons for the 21st Century.”

The conference considered Carter’s years in the White House, important decisions he and his staff made and what could be learned from them. A key topic among speakers at various panels was Carter’s energy policy.

Carter himself called his handling of 1970s energy crisis “the moral equivalent of war.”

Jay Hakes, director of the Carter Library, said Carter attacked the energy issue by calling for a full-scale energy plan in the first 90 days of his term in office.

As a symbolic move, Carter had solar panels put on the White House and called upon Americans to conserve, noting that solving the energy problem would require sacrifice.

Hakes said this sent a powerful message to the American public about the importance of energy independence.

Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s chief domestic policy adviser, had advice for the incumbent president: “I hope Bush can be honest that we can’t get out of our dependence on foreign oil without some sacrifice.”

In the 1970s, energy policy also affected foreign policy.

“Our dependency on foreign oil made us subject,in effect, to blackmail,” Carter said in relation to Middle East events in the 1970s.

Hakes said Carter set an early goal of reducing foreign oil imports to six million barrels a day.

When Carter took office, Hakes said, the United States was importing nine million barrels.

It was seven million when he left and five million by 1985.

Today the United States imports more than twice the 1985 amount.

Former Senator Howard Baker (R-Tenn.) commended Carter’s efforts, saying, “He’ll be remembered first and foremost for taking on the question of how do we produce energy in vast and prodigious quantities that is not offensive to the environment.”

Eizenstat said energy was the most divisive issue at the time, and Carter emphasized the most reasonable options of conservation and efficiency while investing in new technologies and alternative fuels.

Eizenstat was quick to remind the audience of the political consequences of those decisions.

“Jimmy Carter was the first and last president to make energy the center of his presidency,” Eizenstat said. “Because he did disregard the political consequences, he laid the foundation for an energy policy.”

Summarizing many of Carter’s initiatives, Eizenstat said the former president had imposed higher mileage standards and begun funding fuel alternatives such as gasohol, now known as ethanol.

He added Carter also had tied oil deregulation to windfall profits taxes to fund alternative fuels research.

“Just think where we would be today if those alternative energy strategies had been seen through,” Eizenstat said.

Baker shared parting words for University students: “It’s your future, it’s your time that we’re talking about.”