Dimensions
161 x 234 x 24mm
We've confused 'energy security' with 'oil security.' In our pursuit of oil security, we've become as isolated and alone as we have been since the world went global. Today, far more of our international situation is related to oil and energy, because we are as energy-hungry as ever, and more energy-dependent than ever. To take just one pressing example, Iran is a threat, and it sits on the world’s second-largest oil reserves. Should we try to work with them or not?
The American people say it again and again in polls: Congress is not adopting sensible energy policies, it isn’t even thinking about global warming, it bends over backwards for the oil companies.
We should start a ten-year program, right now, to eliminate our dependence on overseas oil. Ten years from now, we should no longer patrol the Persian Gulf with two carrier groups.
We can’t rationalize prices, protect our national interests, or grow peacefully without this basic change. And we will save a hell of a lot of money that can be put toward better uses such as cutting taxes, paying for social security and medicare, and incentivizing energy efficiency and alternative energy development at home.
It’s about technology, efficiency, and putting our national interests first. We have the technologies available. But we don’t have the incentives. We need to bring a 100 mpg car to market in the next five years. The technology is there, and it's available now. With clean diesel and biofuels, and renewable energy on the grid, we could create a vehicle that uses literally no oil at all. Then we need feebates and other incentives that make buyers think they’ll save a LOT of money buying that kind of car.
Efficiency is a resource. California has kept its per capita electric consumption almost level since 1975, while the U.S. per capita average has grown more than 60%. The average Californian, with all the state’s hot tubs and air conditioning and energy-intensive high-tech manufacturing, uses around 7,000 kwh in a year, and the average American uses more than 12,000 kwh.
Put it all together and it saves a huge amount of money and makes the economy far more efficient. It might be the next great productivity wave for the U.S. economy.
The underlying principle here is to create competition, to make markets work more efficiently, to eliminate the dominance that oil and coal have created, and bring alternative sources and efficiency to the fore in key sectors.
