What a farce. The time that lawmakers spend promoting showy gimmicks is
time that should be used on a long-range strategy for moving our country
off its dangerous addiction to oil.
Time is not in our favor. Rising gasoline prices are not a transitory
market hiccup but an ominous sign that the energy system on which we
depend is dangerously unstable.
Our economy and security are at risk. If nothing is done, warns House
Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, the New York Republican, "We
are going to lurch from oil crisis to oil crisis, and each one is going to
get worse."
This should not come as a surprise. The risks of betting our future on
endless supplies of cheap oil have been known for decades. Every day of
denial and delay brought the reckoning closer, like a balloon payment on a
cut-rate mortgage.
Why now? It boils down to supply and demand in the oil market, which is
global. Supplies are tight and demand is rising, which has made the market
twitchy and prone to price spikes.
Any disruption anywhere that spooks the market sends prices upward. Last
year, it was hurricanes. This year, it's been civil unrest in Nigeria,
violence in Iraq and tension around Iran's nuclear dabbling.
Tomorrow, it could be worse. Earlier this year, security forces thwarted
terrorists attempting to bomb an oil processing plant in Saudi Arabia, the
world's biggest oil producer. Had the bombers succeeded, the result would
have been economic calamity. As terrorists like to say, they only have to
be lucky once.
Even if every oil-producing region were as stable as Sweden, however, oil
is a finite commodity. Experts disagree on the timing, but global oil
production will peak in the near future and begin an inexorable decline.
The biggest gorilla in the closet is climate change. Continuing with an
energy system based on inefficient use of carbon-based fuels is a
crapshoot with dangerous odds.
Meanwhile, fuel demand keeps rising. American demand alone consumes 25
percent of global production. China, India, and other big developing
nations that want the high-energy lifestyle are using more oil.
Add more oil supply, some politicians insist. Drill the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge. Drill off the coasts. Drill the Rocky Mountains. Just
drill, damn it.
We're chasing our tails if we try to drill our way out of this mess.
American wells already supply 8 percent of world oil production. Since
America holds only 2 percent of world oil reserves, we are, in effect,
draining domestic oil reserves four times faster than the rest of the
world.
Once the domestic barrel is depleted, we'd be worse off - still addicted
to oil, still vulnerable to dangerous forces beyond our control.
What we can control is demand. Greater fuel efficiency is the essential
first step that will buy time to phase in oil substitutes, put some air
into the oil market, and loosen dependence on petro-regimes. Fuel
efficiency is the American weapon that overseas oil barons fear most.
Raising fuel economy standards to 40 miles per gallon would save more than
4 million barrels per day by 2020 - far more than anything an Arctic
refuge oil field could ever produce.
The most promising mid-term oil alternative is biofuels produced from farm
residues, urban wastes, and fast-growing crops such as switchgrass.
Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles running on a mixture of 85 percent
ethanol and 15 percent gasoline could achieve 500 miles per gallon of gas.
Changing our unhealthy energy ways will take time and investment. Our
focus must not be on quick fixes, but on speeding up a transition to clean
and renewable fuels and energy technologies.
We must start now, to assure our country of a clean, safe and prosperous
21st century.
This op-ed was first published in the Albuquerque Tribune on May 9,
2006, and was republished with the author's permission.
About the Author...
Jim DiPeso is the policy director of Republicans for Environmental
Protection (REP America), a grass-roots organization that seeks to restore
the Republican conservation tradition.
The information and views expressed in this article are those of the
author and not necessarily those of RenewableEnergyAccess.com or the
companies that advertise on its Web site and other publications.
