ACCORDING to British Petroleum, if the United States were to rely entirely upon oil drilled in this country, we would have oil for four years and three months, and that includes depleting entirely the Strategic Petroleum Reserves. Currently, the United States is the world's third largest oil producer, behind Russia and Saudi Arabia. We rank 10th in proven reserves, which means that for every day we extract oil at the current rate, we place ourselves at greater geopolitical risk since most of the world's fuel that drives our economy and our military sits beneath Saudi Arabia, Iraq and, to a lesser extent, Venezuela and Russia. Already foreign oil comprises over half of the oil we consume, and the Department of Energy estimates that proportion will grow to over two-thirds in fifteen years.
Because our economy cannot function without oil (we consume 20 million barrels per day), and because we do not possess the reserves necessary for a functioning economy in the long term, current oil consumption patterns pose a grave danger to our security. If the leaders of Middle Eastern countries decided to stop selling us oil in, say, 2015, we would be in a much more dangerous situation than in 1973, simply because we have depleted our own reserves more rapidly than most large oil producers over the past few years. Unfortunately, such a scenario is not beyond the realm of possibility. Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs told the New Yorker that "Saudi Arabia is pretty rapidly destabilizing," and that we cannot gain control of Iraq using our current approach.If there is even the possibility that Sachs is correct, then a responsible president and Congress must act to make us independent of foreign oil.
Yet instead of working to reduce consumption of oil, Bush grants tax credits to businesses that purchase Humvees, while refusing to support raising Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which would lower our consumption of oil dramatically, thereby providing us with more security. In both these cases, Bush sacrifices national security for corporate profits for the same companies whose CEOs write him the $4,000 checks that provide the bulk of his $350 million re-election fund.
Rather than working to reduce our consumption of oil and find alternative energy sources, Bush chose to invade Iraq and secure the world's second largest oil reserve by force. The problem with this solution goes beyond the death of over 1,000 U.S. troops and the festering of terrorism in Iraq. As Paul Bremer stated, current troop strength in Iraq is woefully inadequate, and a dramatic increase is impossible without a draft. Thus, we have an increasingly unstable situation, in which more U.S. soldiers die in each successive month, with no positive end in sight. This is not a solution to our energy problems.
Fortunately, John Kerry has embraced a more rational approach, based on support for hybrid in addition to hydrogen vehicles. This, coupled with increases in CAFE standards (which Kerry has supported in the past), would improve our security. Kerry also supports some aspects of the Apollo Alliance goals to reduce our consumption of natural gas and coal as well as oil. The United States only has 3 percent of the world's natural gas reserves, while Iran, Russia and Qatar possess over 50 percent. Therefore, in the same way that reducing oil consumption prevents Saudi Arabia or Iraq from gaining power over us, weaning ourselves from fossil fuel-based electricity generation helps accomplish the same goal.
As students, we can do our small part by voting "Yes" on the clean energy referendum next week during the fall student elections. If we support paying $7 each per semester, the University could shift 12 percent of its energy consumption from fossil fuels and nuclear to renewable wind energy. According to U.Va. Students for Environmental Action, this would prevent 39 million pounds of carbon dioxide (the most prevalent greenhouse gas) emissions, and would provide demand for wind power, which is part of the broader goal of achieving national energy independence.
If you envision America as a fortress upon a hill, then currently our well lies outside our walls, several miles away on the plain below. We have neither the soldiers nor the monetary resources to permanently defend the well, so we must either rely upon the goodwill of those nations that control the well or reduce our consumption, or find another source entirely. Fortunately, we don't need to drink oil or natural gas, and by taking a few relatively simple steps such as increasing CAFE standards we can avoid the danger of other countries controlling our economic lifeblood.
Zack Fields is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.
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