by Stephanie Ho
18-05-06
Lawmakers in the United States are taking a
closer look at energy security, an issue that has been pushed to the forefront
by a series of recent events threatening the global supply of crude oil. Energy
security was the topic of hearings in both houses of Congress.
Assistant Energy Secretary Karen Harbert, in her testimony, listed several
reasons why the Bush administration has become concerned about energy security.
"The world's energy depends on a few countries. Obviously, record high oil
prices. Resources that are located in places that are geographically hard to
reach, geologically hard to develop, politically unstable and unfriendly to new
investment," she said.
In the Senate, Senator Richard Lugar said there is strong bipartisan interest
among his colleagues in making sure the United States has a secure supply of
energy. He said Moscow's decision earlier this year to cut off the supply of gas
to Ukraine, in what was widely seen as political blackmail, clearly showed
energy in tight markets could become a powerful political weapon.
"Somebody that shuts off the tap to Ukraine, for example, accomplishes something
that you do not have to send aircraft over or tanks, or what have you, to do.
You can obliterate a country this way. And that is one reason that we are
talking about this, because we said as these things start to close in, the
knives get sharper and the elbows likewise, or people in a strategic position
decide to use this aggressively against others, maybe against us," he said.
At a House of Representatives' hearing on the subject, Congressman Stephen
Lynch listed other examples of potential global problems affecting the supply of
oil to the United States.
"Iran, for example, the second-largest producer within the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries, has repeatedly issued thinly-veiled supply
disruption threats in response to US-led efforts to curb that country's uranium
enrichment program. In addition, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez,whose country
is the United States' fifth largest source of imports, has similarly asserted
the possibility of retaliatory oil-related actions stemming from his opposition
to US policy," he said.
Another problem country lawmakers pointed to is Nigeria, a major supplier of
oil for the United States, where violence has disrupted production in recent
month.
The State Department's Paul Simons said Washington can deal with temporary
disruptions in oil supply by using the country's emergency reserves.
"I think the option that we try to keep most available and most ready to use is
our coordinated use of our strategic stocks, and, as you will recall, during
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last fall, we were able to work with the 26 members
of the International Energy Agency, and, within 24 hours, we agreed to release
60 mm barrels of oil to meet that supply disruption that was actually caused by
a natural occurrence here on US shores," he said.
Much of the 21 mm barrels of oil the United States consumes each day comes
from other countries.
"We produce about 9 mm bpd, roughly. We import about 12 mm bpd," said Jason
Grumet, executive director of the National Commission on Energy Policy, an
independent group made up of representatives from government, academia and
industry. He said because the United States imports so much of the oil it needs,
it cannot afford to ignore the world's trouble spots.
"It leads one to emotionally desire to basically take our marbles and go
home, get away from these guys. The problem is, we have 3 % of the world's
marbles, and we use 25 % of annual oil production. So, the notion that we can
somehow isolate ourselves from this global dynamic is a vestige of a path that
does not really exist," he said.
Energy security is topping the agenda for the G8 summit of the world's seven
most industrialized countries and Russia to be held in St Petersburg in July.
Daniel Yergin, chairman of the independent consulting firm, Cambridge Energy
Research Associates, told Congress the G8 discussion will be a good start to
global energy debate.
Source: www.voanews.com