Where's The National Energy Plan?

So how much oil does the United States import each year? A good question and one every American should be asking themselves.

Dangerous Vulnerability

In 2005 (the year the U.S. Senate refused to allow drilling in ANWR) the United States was importing about 59% of the nearly 22 million barrels a day we consumed. In the 1970s and 1980s that number was approximately 33 percent. If correct, our 2005 imports represented a two fold increase in the amount of oil we were importing back in 1973 when OPEC launched its boycott.

In 2006, about 41% of the energy we consumed came from petroleum. In order to feed this habit, the U.S. was importing oil from a host of countries including, Iraq, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Angola, Libya, Nigeria, Ecuador, Venezuela and even Indonesia. Unfortunately this activity has not slowed down.

Renewable energy sources haven't been much help. In 2006 only about 7% of our energy was generated by renewable means which included solar, biomass, hydroelectric, wind and geothermal.

The renewable energy numbers remained basically unchanged in 2007

By 2007 is was already obvious that even maximum production of bio fuels would fall short of satisfying the demand by a very wide margin. At the same time it had already become obvious that a wholesale diversion of biomass to fuel would threaten food supplies.

In 2008, about 66 percentage of all U.S. crude oil is imported making us at least twice as vulnerable as we were three decades ago. In the same year some sources were predicting that, by the year 2030, world energy demand would grow by 50 percent.

Viable Domestic Sources Remain Untapped

On April 10, 2008 the United States Geological Survey released its report on the Bakken oil formation beneath North Dakota and Montana, indicating that the formation might hold between 3 and 4.3 billion barrels of oil. Between the Bakken Formation, the offshore fields and ANWR we have more oil right here in the United States than the total known reserves of the Mideast's oil producers.

Strangulation by Restrictions With No Viable Alternatives

Despite the cost of imported oil, political opposition continues to drilling in ANWR, the Bakken Formation and in known offshore fields. In addition, even if these fields were opened for drilling, the additional refining capacity doesn't exist and isn't likely to be allowed.

So what's the plan? There apparently isn't one. Bio fuels can't be produced in quantities large enough to replace the demand for oil. Moreover, significant bio fuel production will affect both the cost and supply of food. For example the more corn you use to make ethanol, the higher the cost of beef.

Renewable energy sources (i.e. solar, wind, hydroelectric etc) have not and are not expanding fast enough to replace even the 2006 appetite for petroleum, let alone the projected 2030 appetite.

Simple Logic

We cannot continue to allow politicians and the well funded agendas of environmentalists to strangle our economy without any rational plan to replace the oil energy we are forced to import.

Simple logic dictates that before we block the use of our own domestic resources we need a detailed plan, with identifiable goals, a known cost, and a reasonable timetable.