By Staff
The United States imports almost 70 percent of the oil it consumes – a figure expected to climb to 85 percent by 2012.
U.S. energy demands are expected to surge another 40 percent by 2030.
Yet global oil production fell 126,000 barrels a day in 2007 while consumption soars a million barrels a day.
Then you read that 2.1 trillion barrels of oil shale are locked away in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming – more than the capacity of Saudi, Iranian, Russian and Venezuelan oil reserves combined.
Then you also read that China is drilling off the Florida Keys in Cuban waters, but we can't touch our own resources in the West, ANWR and the Outer Continental Shelf.
"How can we possibly ask Arab nations to increase their oil production while we close off our coasts and interior to environmentally sound exploration?" our congressman, U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, asked in a recent article.
"Let's unlock our resources and chart our nation on a course towards energy independence, fortifying our nation's energy supply for generations to come. We are clearly at a crossroads" with India's and China's energy consumption continue to grow by more than 10 percent a year.
That consumption will continue to sharply escalate as one third of the world's population enters the industrial age.
Upton says oil is just a piece of the overall puzzle in meeting our future energy needs, for which we have the capability and technology to responsibly pursue "American-made energy" through domestic exploration, the advancement of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar and the promotion of clean coal technologies and emissions-free nuclear power.
Coal supplies about half of our nation's energy supply. Nuclear power accounts for 20 percent, followed by natural gas at 20 percent, hydroelectric at 7 percent and other renewables such as wind and solar at 2 percent.
"If we were to maintain the current ratio of electricity generation to meet future demand over the next 20 years," Upton says, "we would have to construct 747 new coal plants, 52 new nuclear plants and 1,994 new hydro-electric plants. Energy prices drive our economy. As the price of gasoline has skyrocketed, due in part to policies that limit access to American energy resources, it is critical that electricity rates do not follow suit. While supplying just 20 percent of our electricity, nuclear power accounts for an extraordinary 70 percent of our nation's emissions-free electricity … The ripple effect of high energy costs will continue to be a staggering burden on working families for decades to come unless we take responsibility and chart a new course toward energy independence."
I've never been gung-ho about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but then I imagined it much more pristine than it apparently is. If they really can explore an area the size of a football field by disturbing the equivalent of a postage stamp, isn't it time to bring American ingenuity in from the bullpen?
Quips, quotes and qulunkers: "Americans seem to keep their houses cooler in summer than they do in the winter."
– Edward Parson, University of Michigan Law School. In fact, in 2006, we used as much energy air conditioning as the total energy usage of all but 21 countries.
"Geoge W. Bush's failure to call for sacrifice – and fuel conservation would have been a great one – after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has been one of the great failures of his presidency."
– Time political columnist
Joe Klein
"Suppose President George W. Bush had used the political gift certificate he was granted on Sept. 11, 2001, when he could have asked Americans to do almost anything in the name of fighting terrorism, to impose a $1.50 'War on Terror' tax on a gallon of gas (instead of squandering his certificate on invading Iraq). The price at the time was about $1.50 per gallon, so this would have doubled it to $3. People would have screamed with pain, then started adjusting. Demand would have gone down, and today gas would probably be selling for less than the $4(.19) per gallon we're paying. Not only that, but $1.50 of that price would be staying here in the U.S. instead of going to Saudi Arabia or Venezuela or Bahrain. To the rest of the world, we look like idiots. In fact, regarding oil, we really are idiots."
– Michael Kinsley
"The U.S. alone accounts for nearly half of the world's military spending. The Pentagon burns up more money in one month than the Russian military does in a year. The Washington Post recently reported that some 200 servicemen and women, most of whom were killed in action, were cremated at a faciity near Dover Air Force Base in Delaware that also handled the cremation of pets. It seems the Dover mortuary that is supposed to handle the remains of service personnel killed overseas doesn't have its own crematory, and as with so many aspects of this war the task was outsourced."
– Graydon Carter,
July Vanity Fair
"The main reason progress in Iraq is not receiving more attention is that the progress is considerable and the big media … don't like the new storyline. They prefer 'America defeated,' not America victorious' because defeat increases the likelihood of a Democratic electoral blowout in the fall … Another sign of progress was the announcement that the Iraqi government will award contracts to 41 foreign oil firms in an effort to increase production. It's the first time foreign energy companies have been allowed in Iraq since Saddam Hussein expelled them 36 years ago … considerable progress is being made and the naysayers are being proved wrong. Who is going to tell that story if most of the big media won't? … that job must fall to John McCain."
– Cal Thomas