We Need A Declaration of Oil Independence!
Current high gas prices reminds me of the mid-70’s and how we shot ourselves in the foot to make a bad situation even worse. It was a bad economic time compounded by foolish government reaction. Hopefully, we learn from our own history.
You would think that bad experience might have resulted in some strategic plan to avoid a recurrence… but, no… here we are again. We elect our representatives to LEAD… but, generally speaking, it seems all they’re capable of doing is REACTING. Not good.
When oil prices were low, being dependent on foreign sources was fine… we couldn’t be held over a barrel (pun intended) by the price alone. Now, though, prices have increased to a level where it has a negative impact. Though this effect has been historically cyclical, our country should make every effort to minimize its influence in the future since it’s likely to be even less controllable, given a relatively sure increase in demand (China), the volatility of speculation, and the continued manipulation of a sizable portion of world production by OPEC.
While it certainly won’t help the immediate circumstances, WE should DEMAND some kind of strategic plan to help reduce our vulnerability to fluctuations in oil prices. It might take a few years to get there, but NOW is the time to start.
I’m no expert in this area, but I think some great minds could come up with some PRACTICAL INITIATIVES to support these observations:
The U.S. produced about 1.8 billion barrels of oil in 2007 (which is about HALF of what it was in 1970!) and consumed about 6.7 billion barrels, meaning we imported about 4.9 billion barrels … so, about 73% of our oil was imported in 2007. Simple math says we should obviously:
- Increase production - we have been doing nothing on this front!
- If we produced twice as much oil domestically almost 40 years ago, we can certainly do it now… if not more.
- Technology improvements as well as better techniques learned since then should allow us to increase production without having a significant negative impact on the ecology.
- Decrease consumption - the vast majority of oil-based product consumption continues to be gasoline
- More efficient cars - we have actually made advances in this area, but developing the technology means progress has been relatively slow.
- More efficient USE of cars - undoubtedly, better driving habits would be a step in the right direction, but efforts to increase carpooling and mass transportation have been very slow to take hold.
- Alternative fuels - little actual progress has been made, notwithstanding the current folly of using food products (corn) to produce automotive fuel (ethanol) and consuming more fuel than is created in the process, not to mention other untended results (damage to engines, impacting the price of food, etc). I personally don’t see a short term solution here… but hold great hope that future technology will provide excellent alternatives.
It would appear we could READILY increase oil production in our country… if the resistance of ecological idealists can be overcome. It is in our overall own best interests.
Decreasing consumption appears to be a steeper hill to climb.
Sidebar: IS our consumption actually UNreasonable?
While we are the top consumer of oil in the world (China is second at the moment), what if we looked at consumption PER CAPITA?
On average, the U.S. used a little over 22 barrels of oil for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. in 2007. 22 barrels per person. Does that seem extravagant? Considering how spread out our country is, how many cars and trucks are needed not just for our personal use but for all the business that is done across our nation, how many petroleum-based products (other than gasoline) we use in our everyday lives (think plastics)… it actually seems pretty remarkable that we only use 22 barrels per person PER YEAR!
I’m not trying to rationalize… I’m just making an observation and looking at it from a different perspective.
Here’s something to think about:
Suppose we could cut our consumption in half… a feat that would require CONSIDERABLE change in our lifestyles (and isn’t likely to happen anytime soon!)… we would STILL be importing about 2 billion barrels of oil per year. Even that situation wouldn’t be a preferred one for our country.
Being a relatively practical, realistic person who tries to find realistic solutions to problems, it seems overly obvious that we should immediately take steps to increase the domestic production of oil. While some people will unquestionably NOT be happy about that shift in direction, we live in a REAL world and we must make REAL choices… we cannot pretend there is a workable alternative TODAY and let ourselves become slaves to uncontrollable foreign economic pressures.
AT THE SAME TIME, we should embark on a research initiative to find better (and truly viable) fuel sources for the future so our increased use of domestic oil will not be a long-term choice. We need something like what the space program was… a small organization with a stated goal with allocated resources and an environment conducing to applying creative solutions to the problem… despite many naysayers, our space program was quite remarkable and, in a relatively few years, we achieved the goal.
While I prefer to let the free enterprise system work to produce results, and in most areas it does, the job isn’t getting done quickly enough, so maybe our government can fill the void. Just as it wasn’t likely for the business sector to step in a do the full R&D for the space program, this must be another one where we need to apply national resources. I’ll bet the funding could even be found by taking money from unnecessary government expenditures (so-called “earmarks” or “pork” programs) and redirecting it to this much more laudable effort. Regardless, this is one area where it seems wholly appropriate for government to be involved, a national strategic initiative.
The U.S.A. needs an actual Fuel Independence Program where, once again, American ingenuity can be creatively focused on solving a complex problem. We’ve done it before, we can do it again. Not only would WE benefit from the results, the entire world would undoubtedly also enjoy the resulting new technology since we have a history for sharing the good things that come from our efforts.
