Bush and McCain would have you believe that we must drill to get control over the energy crisis facing this country. To the contrary, the facts demonstrate that the technology for America to achieve energy independence from the Middle East exists and is being used by hundreds of millions of people today. As I will show, if we Americans were using this technology today, we currently would be saving more than twice the amount of oil we import from the Middle East.
It is up to each of us to become more conversant with the facts around oil so we can rebut the false claims of Republican politicians. It is not enough to rely on one "guru" or another as a source of information, whether it be the Sierra Club, or for that matter Anne Korins or T. Boone Pickens.
Whether it be hybrids or wind power or whatever solution they offer, these gurus will frame the facts to point you towards their solution. I will show you the basic facts. You can draw your own conclusions.
Neither I nor any guru can predict how we can reduce our dependence on oil. I just know we are an industrious people. If we elect a leader who guides Americans to set our minds to the task, if we set our goals high, or at least not low, one way or another, America can do it.
Americans are facing an energy crisis as bad as we have ever seen. A lot of Republicans have said efforts at conservation to promote energy independence are not the answer. We need drilling, say the Republicans. Republicans argue that the technology to achieve energy independence other than through drilling does not exist. It’s impossible, say Republicans, to achieve energy independence through conservation using technology available now or in the near future.
Here’s what I say. Not so. And I have the proof that the technology exists and in fact is being used by hundreds of millions of people today. The facts show that if America were using the same readily available technology that Europe already is using right now, we would not need to import one drop of oil from the Middle East. We would not need to worry about oil from the Middle East.
Instead, unlike forward thinking governments in Europe, our Republican Executive has lagged way behind. Republicans have done nothing to reduce our dependency on oil except to declare that we are addicted to oil and everything except drilling is impossible. At the same time, somehow the Republicans find reason to dole out billions of dollars in subsidies to oil companies.
Here are the facts to prove what is possible:
America consumes 20.7 million barrels of petroleum per day.
America’s imports amount to 12 million barrels of petroleum per day
America imports 10 million barrels of oil per day (the other 2 million barrels of petroleum importer per day consist of other petroleum products)
America imports 6.5 million barrels of petroleum per day from OPEC countries in the Middle East and elsewhere (6 million of that consist of oil)
America imports 2.1 million barrels of oil per day from the Middle East
US motor gasoline consumption accounts for 9.3 million barrels per day
All of the above facts are from this Republican Administration: http://www.eia.doe.gov/... and http://middleeast.about.com/... (About.com sourcing the US government for the 2.1 million statistic)
"In general, cars are far more fuel-efficient in Europe, where gas is much more expensive. In Europe, cars on average get 40 mpg, compared with 20.4 mpg for U.S. cars."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
"In Europe, that average is about 43 miles per gallon. It is approximately 45 miles per gallon in Japan."
http://www.courant.com/...
According to this Republican Administration, vehicles account for roughly 2/3 of our oil consumption:
"The use of petroleum products as vehicle fuels is classified as "transportation" use. In the United States, in contrast to other regions of the world, about 2/3 of all oil use is for transportation, as shown in the graph. (In most of the rest of the world, oil is more commonly used for space heating and power generation than for transportation.) Gasoline, in turn, accounts for about 2/3 of the total oil used for transportation in the United States. Other petroleum products commonly used for transportation include diesel fuel (used for trucks, buses, railroads, some vessels, and a few passenger autos), jet fuel, and residual fuel oil (used for tankers and other large vessels)."
http://www.eia.doe.gov/...
http://www.eia.doe.gov/...
So, now that we have established the facts, let's do the math.
Vehicles account for 2/3 times 20.6 million barrels of petroleum per day consumed = 13.7 barrels of oil per day consumed by vehicles. But let’s be conservative and assume the number is lower, at the 9.3 million barrels of oil per day claimed by the Republican Administration above.
If our vehicles were to get the same mileage as vehicles do in Europe, or double, then our consumption would be 9.3 barrels of oil per day consumed by US vehicles divided by two (twice as many miles to the gallon) = 4.6 million barrels of oil per day (rounding conservatively down to the nearest digit).
If Bush had promoted use of energy efficient technology for vehicles like he clearly saw European governments across the pond doing all this time, the American people could be saving 4.6 million barrels of oil per day. This savings would be well over twice the 2.1 million barrels of oil per day we import from the Middle East.
Let’s assume, however, that only after 9/11, Bush, McCain and the Republicans had started promoting energy efficiency and that they aimed low. Let’s assume they said, “you know, 9/11 scares us and we need to get more energy independent fast, but we are not as good as the Europeans – we can’t match them, we’re throwing in the towel, and we are admitting we can only hope to be half as good as they are.” Let’s therefore assume Republicans aimed to improve our collective gas mileage by just over 50% to 30 miles per gallon on average, or 10 mpg on average better than America’s current 20 mpg average.
This improvement of 10 miles per gallon better would have saved us 2.3 million boe/day, or half of the 4.6 million boe/day in savings we could have achieved if we were able to match the Europeans. In other words, with even half-way decent leadership, the American people still would be well on their way to saving 2.1 the million boe/day we currently need to save to avoid importing oil from the Middle East today.
So before anyone responds that America achieving 30 average miles per gallon by today is just impossible, remember that Europe is already at 40 mpg. Just think about all those Hummers, SUVs and other large or muscle cars that so many American citizens are now so sorry they bought after 9/11. With hybrid SUVs and great potential for super powered electric cars (see the Tesla http://en.wikipedia.org/... it’s not like we have to sacrifice very much in the long run. Even if we had just improved our collective vehicle fuel economy by five mpg by now, that would be 1.1 million barrels of oil per day, one quarter of the 4.6 million. Such a five mpg improvement would mean we would have reduced our current dependence on oil from the Middle East by over half.
The truth is that if the Republican leaders we elected had taken decisive action, just on vehicle efficiency alone, in response to 9/11 and Global Warming, we would be far less invested in the Middle East. We would be sending far less money to countries that still do not oppose sincerely our extremist enemies among them who attacked us on 9/11 and who still want to kill us more than ever. Instead of taking action, Bush, McCain and the Republicans watched as American fuel standards actually declined for years after 9/11 and then languished. http://www.epa.gov/...
Now, instead of facing facts, Bush and McCain and the Republican leaders are shirking responsibility for their poor “leadership” record of inaction on energy conservation by arguing that it was not possible for them to do more. If Bush and McCain were honest, they would admit they made some serious mistakes when it came to the need of the American people to reduce our dependency on foreign oil through energy conservation. They would admit that we need to aim high. They would admit there’s no good reason why we can’t aim to be as good as the Europeans. In fact, Bush and McCain, and especially Dick Cheney, didn’t even aim us half as high. They aimed low. Their aim was completely off.
Unfortunately, Bush and McCain’s denial of their mistakes on energy are part of a broader pattern. Republicans since Nixon have had a hard time admitting the truth about their actions or pursuing policies on behalf of the American people when there are corporations who will reap massive benefits from doing otherwise. The bellwether here is corruption. And the bellwether for corruption is the number of felony convictions in a Presidential Administration.
There have been well over 30 felony convictions of Republican officials in Republican Administrations starting with Nixon, compared with zero for the Democrats. That is a simple objective measure of how much more dishonest and corrupt the Republican leaders at the national level have been during the past 40 years.
The Republican felony conviction count is not to mention, (1) the ousted Republican President Nixon who never had the chance to be convicted or even impeached before Ford promptly pardoned him, (2) the first President Bush who promptly pardoned Casper Weinberger and five others after they implicated him in testimony under oath as being directly involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, (3) our current President Bush who promptly got Scooter Libby out of jail when it appeared Scooter might turn his sights on the Bush Administration, and who seems to be caught up in scandal after scandal, including illegal warrantless wiretapping of the American people, outing a CIA agent for political reasons, torture, rendition, and the most recent flagrantly illegal scandal revealed by Ron Suskind that the White House ordered our government to create a forged letter to falsely implicated Iraq in the 9/11 plot, and (4) the systematic corruption among Republicans at the national level in a web spun by Jack Abramoff and many others. As is readily apparent at the non-partisan watchdog site, www.beyonddelay.org, even now that Republicans are in a minority in Congress, they are in the vast majority when it comes to shady politicians.
Here’s what we are left with from the Republicans: a poor record on energy and weak credibility to back up their claims that they will somehow change their course and do better. John McCain says he is going to explore a range of energy measures which include, among other things, more tax breaks for oil companies like Exxon, which recently had the most profitable quarter in the entire history of the world. The American public was similarly told Bush is a compassionate conservative who is against nation building. The American public gets the joke. McCain, whose campaign is already full of Bushies, would pass more tax cuts for oil and other companies and scrap the rest. As a reminder, as recently as 2003 and again in 2005, well after 9/11 when the writing was on the wall that energy independence is an issue of national security, McCain voted against energy amendments that would have boosted mileage requirements. http://www.thecitizen.com/...
Just like in the past, there will be no improvement by our Republican politicians and officials unless the American people send them a strong message at the polls. Americans should tell failing, corrupt politicians, whether Democratic or Republican, to stop and sit down (or go to jail as appropriate). Americans should tell Bush, McCain and the Republican politicians that they do not deserve our votes at the national level until they take accountability for their errors and prove that they are ready for change.
PS I am betting that as long as Republicans like Bush and McCain control our energy policy, the situation will not improve for Americans. If Senator Obama is elected, there will be hope that within a few years he will lead Americans to change Bush and McCain’s failing course.