Jim Mulva got it right. The chairman and chief executive officer of ConocoPhillips, in a talk to the US Chamber of Commerce, noted proposals by the US Congress to raise oil operations taxes, remove tax incentives and make lawsuits easier against countries that send oil to the United States.

Then he said that kind of response to high gasoline pump prices won’t increase efficiency, won’t lead to a helpful energy policy, won’t protect the environment and won’t help reach domestic resources now out of bounds to drilling.

The UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) got it right, too. Instead of taking the US Congress “Do something, even if it’s wrong,” attitude or the Venezuelan and Bolivian “If it looks like oil, nationalize it,” attitude, DTI has a plan.

The plan is at www.dti.gov.uk/energy/. Click on the Energy White Paper 2007 tab on the left. Recommended reading. The federal agency looked at the nation’s energy prospects; looked at the nation’s needs for the future; and formed a comprehensive plan that involved maximizing oil and gas production, minimizing pollutants, conserving energy and providing adequate energy for all citizens. Here’s the context:
• Growing evidence of the impact of climate change and wider international recognition that there needs to be a concerted global effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide;
• Rising fossil fuel prices and slower-than-expected liberalization of EU (European Union) energy markets at a time when the United Kingdom is increasingly relying on imported energy;
• Heightened awareness of the risks arising from the concentration of the world’s remaining oil and gas reserves in fewer regions around the world, namely the Middle East and North Africa, and Russia and Central Asia; and
• In the United Kingdom, companies needing to make substantial new investment in power stations, the electricity grid and gas infrastructure.
Within that context, the DTI wants the nation to:
• Establish an international framework to tackle climate change;
• Provide legally binding carbon targets for the whole UK economy, progressively reducing emissions;
• Make further progress in achieving fully competitive and transparent international markets;
• Encourage more energy saving through better information, incentives and regulation;
• Provide more support for low-carbon technologies; and
• Ensure the right conditions for investment.

But wait a minute.

The National Petroleum Council (NPC) in the United States, a group of energy industry officers who advise the US secretary of energy, just came out with a plan, too. It looked at many of the same needs as the UK study and decided the United States must:
• Moderate the growing demand for energy by increasing efficiency of transportation, residential, commercial and industrial uses;
• Expand and diversify production from clean coal, nuclear, biomass, other renewables, and unconventional oil and natural gas; moderate the decline of conventional domestic oil and gas production; and increase access for development of new resources;
• Integrate energy policy into trade, economic, environmental, security and foreign policies; strengthen global energy trade and investment; and broaden dialogue with both producing and consuming nations to improve global energy security;
• Enhance science and engineering capabilities and create long-term opportunities for research and development in all phases of the energy supply and demand system; and
• Develop the legal and regulatory framework to enable carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). In addition, as policymakers consider options to reduce CO2 emissions, provide an effective, global framework for carbon management, including establishment of a transparent, predictable, economy-wide cost for CO2 emissions.
Best of all, “Facing the Hard Truths about Energy,” available at www.npc.org, makes specific recommendations with an analysis of the benefits like this one.
The NPC makes the following recommendations to promote enhanced oil recovery (EOR) from existing reservoirs:
• Support regulatory streamlining and research and development programs for marginal wells.
• Expedite permitting of EOR projects, pipelines and associated infrastructure.

Potential Effect: An additional 90 to 200 billion bbl of recoverable oil in the United States alone, which could help slow the current decline in production.

Neither the government of the United Kingdom nor the government of the United States has approved either of the proposed energy plans, but both plans make sense for the countries they are designed to help.

What a concept. If all nations drew up realistic plans setting forth policies that were good for their people, if all nations recognized the need for international cooperation, those nations might get together and come up with a comprehensive plan for global cooperation in energy management.

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