Some quick oil facts. We use 21 million barrels of oil a day. We import a little over 12 million of those. We use 70, yes 70% of our oil (domestic and imported) on transportation. So, a way to get off foreign oil? New transportation technology.
Brazil began changing their automobile industry, and fueling station infrastructure during the oil embargo of the '70', and today they are a completely energy independent state. How? Flex-fuel. In 1974, Brazil imported almost 80% of their oil, while the U.S was importing around 40 %. Now we are at almost 80% imported, while Brazil is at 0%. They now actually export oil.
So what could cause a change with success like that here in America? Not drilling, that is for sure. The Middle East has the largest known reserves in the world. Regardless of how much we pump here in the U.S., sometime in the future we will run out, and who will still be supplying with no problem? Countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran.
That is why we need to be doing everything possible now to promote a new auto industry, oil-free. It will not be easy, no matter how logical the math is. Auto makers will not build flex-fuel cars without fuel stations to access. Likewise, fuel companies will not carry ethanol pumps, if there is not enough demand. Chicken and the egg. This is where government needs to step in and back, financially, at least one side of this equation, to get the transformation started.
Price at the pump is only one problem with oil. Think of the nations that receive our oil money. A large percentage of this money can be traced through NGO's who sponsor, train, and educate the Islamic extremist groups we are at war with. I would rather pay $4 for a gallon of ethanol, that will go into an American farm industry (by the way, ethanol can come from many more options then just corn), then pay $3 for a gallon of gasoline, that could possibly support a group against everything America stands for.
We can't drill forever. We need change now, so we don't face these same problems in future generations. I see no use in fixing a problem if we completly ignore the source.
Comments are closed for this post.
