Responding to the "Energy Crisis"

Recently there has been considerable discussion and political posturing concerning U.S. energy policies and the advisability of permitting increased drilling on federally owned lands both onshore and offshore. Most Americans, including many of our elected officials, have a strong tendency to ignore long term problems until evolving circumstances reach the point of a crisis. Lee Raymond, former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, in commenting on our country’s “no-action policy” stated that “by the time there is panic, people need to realize this: there is no quick-fix on this. By the time you panic, it was way too late.”

T. Boone Pickens, a legendary figure in the U.S. oil and gas industry, has proposed an innovative solution to our dependence on foreign oil through a combination of developing alternative energy sources (wind power) and powering automobiles with natural gas. Mr. Pickens solution may be difficult to implement because of the huge existing infrastructure for gasoline and diesel powered automobiles, however, he believes that we are not going to find a meaningful solution to our dependence on imported oil without a huge investment in alternate energy technologies. Boone Pickens has stated repeatedly “this is one crisis that we are not going to drill our way out of.”

Pete V. Domenici, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a 36 year veteran of the Senate is one of the most knowledgeable people in the federal government concerning our energy policies. He recently stated “much of what we’re seeing today could have been prevented or ameliorated had we chosen to act differently.” In his opinion, “it was a bipartisan failure to act.”

According to the National Commission on Energy Policy, nearly 70% of the 21 million barrels of oil that the United States consumes every day goes for transportation, primarily for automobiles. One of the best examples of our failure to deal with our growing energy problems occurred in 1990 when a bill to raise corporate average fuel economy or CAFE failed in congress due to opposition from Detroit and traditional conservative lawmakers opposing “government intervention.” Liberal Democrats from auto making states, like Carl Levin, joined conservative Republicans such as Jesse Helms and killed the bill before congress. Knowledgeable sources indicate that we would probably be using three million barrels less of oil per day if we had passed that law.

With only 4% of the world’s population, the United States consumes nearly 25% of the world’s oil. It is clear that this type of consumption can not continue forever as developing nations such as China and India compete with the U.S. for scarce world energy resources. The billions of impoverished people in these countries desire an improved standard of living and will continue to consume an increasing percentage of the world’s finite oil supply. Long term, it is evident that we will be living with higher oil and gas prices.

What we critically need in this country is a comprehensive, effective, long range energy policy that it supported by the American people. Such a plan may very well include opening some additional federal lands for oil and gas development. It will also likely include government sponsorship and financial incentives for a variety of alternative energy sources, an increase in corporate average fuel economy standards for automobiles, and strong incentives for Americans to conserve energy. What we don’t need is simplistic solutions such as immediate calls for more drilling to be used as a politically charged panacea or magic pill for $4.00 gasoline. Our energy crisis is too critical for voters to allow themselves to be manipulated in the heat of a political campaign and find at the end of the game that congress and the next President have failed us again in leading our nation toward a real solution to our problems.