Energy independence has become the watchword of politicians in many areas of the world, and was very much at the forefront of US politicking last week.
“George W. Bush now says that ‘America is addicted to oil,’” said US Sen. John Kerry. “His preferred policy has been to feed the addiction; his attitude on greenhouse gases is to let them increase; his energy alternatives are token; again and again his approach to crisis is to denigrate the environment.”
In his State of the Union Address, President Bush pledged to reduce US oil imports from the Middle East by 75%, partly by increasing the development of alternative fuels.
The Bush administration also has sought legislative backing for greater dependence on domestic production, including exploration of wildlife refuges in Alaska believed to hold as much as 10 billion bbl of crude oil.
Rising xenophobia
In his speech, however, Kerry criticized more than two decades of government inaction to lessen dependence on Middle East oil. Republicans and Democrats both share the blame, said Kerry who called the country’s lack of progress toward energy independence “politics at its worst.”
But one wonders whether just the opposite is really the truth. Perhaps it is the idea of energy independence, with all of its xenophobic overtones, that is really politics at its worst.
That was certainly the suggestion of oil executives who spoke at last week’s US-Arab Economic Forum, held in Houston. To the contrary, executives from ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Co., and Shell Oil Co. all ridiculed the idea of such independence as advanced by US lawmakers.
“Energy isolation is naive; energy dependence is uncomfortable; energy interdependence makes sense,” said Shell Pres. John Hofmeister. “We are trying to bring the message to help people understand that we are the world of users and world of producers.”
Adverse effects
“We need to discard the illusion that energy security will come through so-called energy-independent America. Self-sufficient is neither attainable nor desirable,” said Bill Berry, ConocoPhillips executive vice-president for exploration and production in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
In fact, Berry warned: “Repeated pronouncements by US policymakers about backing off Middle East imports may deter Arab countries from expanding capacity at the very time the world needs them to do so.”
Half a world away, as if on cue, that very sentiment was seemingly aired by the Sec. Gen. of the Kuwait Society of Economists Khalil Al-Qinaee who said his country’s economy is on the decline as it still relies on oil as its only source of income.
He cautioned that any adverse political development in the region, such as a war on Iran, would affect Kuwait’s oil export operations and consequently its revenues. The secretary general, who said Kuwait needs to diversify its income, may also have been thinking of the potentially adverse effects from the policy of energy independence.