Trend: The U.S. only has about 3% of the world's oil reserves, but demands 20% of current world production.
On the Cleantech Blog, Richard T. Stuebi, BP Fellow for Energy and Environmental Advancement at The Cleveland Foundation, describes some solutions offered by Executive Director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security Dr. Gal Luft. Excerpts below.
Link: Cleantech Blog: When In A Hole, Stop Digging.
We complain about high energy prices, and ask the government to do something about it. When, in fact, there's very little the government can do about energy prices. OPEC makes it abundantly clear that we are price-takers, not price-setters.
According to analysis by the U.S. Department of Energy, opening up new areas to drilling "would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030.
Dr. Luft recommends moving to Fuel Flexible vehicles, so OPEC would lose its stranglehold on the U.S. economy. (Fuel Flexible vehicles: Gasoline powered vehicles able to run on a limitless variety of alcohol/petroleum blends with the addition of equipment that is about $100 per vehicle.)
Dr. Luft and other luminaries (e.g., James Woolsey, Robert "Bud" McFarlane) have formed the Set America Free Coalition to promote the Open Fuel Standard Act, which would require that 50% of all vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2010 must be fuel-flexible. According to Dr. Luft, the major automakers say this is doable.
Top Ten List of Energy Facts:
1. World oil production (which is essentially equal to consumption) is at approximately 85 million barrels per day, or 31 billion barrels per year -- and has essentially remained at these levels continuously since mid-2005, even though oil prices have doubled (from about $60/barrel) since then.
2. The U.S. consumes about 25% of the world's annual oil production, implying U.S. demand levels of about 21 million barrels/day (almost 8 billion barrels per year), but holds under its territory only about 2% of the world's proven oil reserves of 1.2 trillion barrels.
3. In contrast, the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC) control almost 80% of the world's oil reserves, yet produce only about 40% of annual oil supplies.
4. OPEC production was 31 million barrels/day in 1973, and 32 million barrels/day in 2007, despite the world economy having doubled in the intervening years.
5. OPEC includes among its members the following countries that are unstable, corrupt and/or unfriendly to the U.S.: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria.
6. The Middle Eastern members of OPEC represent over 75% of total OPEC capacity, of which the single largest player (without which the world oil markets would collapse) is Saudi Arabia, alone accounting for 22% of the world's remaining proven oil reserves.
7. This year, the U.S. will send an estimated $700 billion to the Middle East to purchase oil -- more than the U.S. defense budget (about $600 billion).
8. An unknown portion of these proceeds, but widely-agreed to be a significant amount, funds anti-American (and anti-women, and anti-Semitic, and anti-homosexual, and so on) sentiment -- including outright terrorist activities.
9. About 99% of the energy consumed by the U.S. transportation sector derives from petroleum.
10. The vast majority of American citizens live and work in a manner requires oil-fueled transportation to maintain their basic lifestyles (commuting, shopping, etc.)
We have the knowledge. We have the technology. What we lack is a government who seems capable of devising , supporting, and implementing a plan to free us from our dependence on foreign oil. American's also on the other hand seem to have a very short attention span. Our economy is going down the tubes and fast. This isn't the first time, we have been there before. Our memory seems to blot that all out when fuel prices drop we waste no time wasting, producing, buying and using cars that get low mpg etc. Only when it truly hurts us in the pocketbook do we suddenly switch into our conservation mode. We need to be in this for the long haul, permanently and totally. We need to elect a president who will commit to rapid deployment of a plan of energy independence. We need to use every resource available to us to reduce consumption of fossil fuels. We need to take full advantage of natural energy sources such as wind power and solar power. We need to use our technological knowledge of hybrid cars, v2g technologies etc. They all play a vital role in reducing our dependence on foreign oil and improving our environment not to mention relieving our suffering economy.
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Posted by: James Wittington | August 31, 2008 at 02:29 PM