Curbing America’s Dependence On Foreign Oil

by Darren

One of the greatest challenges faced by the Obama Administration is one that has eluded Presidents going back to the 1970s. Ever since the 1973 energy crisis, the price our nation pays for energy (in political and economic terms) has been a subject of much discussion by politicians. Obama himself has stated he hopes to end America’s dependence on foreign oil by 2019.

“Breaking our oil addiction is one of the greatest challenges our generation will ever face,” Obama said in August.

“It will take nothing less than a complete transformation of our economy,” he said.

America is hooked on foreign oil and the addiction is hurting the country in many ways

The most obvious change would be a massive push for cars that run on alternative energy. Since the government has now invested so much in the auto manufacturers with TARP bailout funds, it would not be unexpected that the Obama administration puts more pressure than ever for alternative vehicles, as well as increased fuel efficiency standards.

T. Boone Pickens wants natural gas and battery-operated cars to replace current models

Decreasing the need for crude oil by replacing cars with one that run on natural gas is a big hit with T. Boone Pickens, who owns the largest natural gas reserves in the United States.

“This is like a deck of cards, and I’ve removed the winning hand,” he said. “I’ve removed the trump card, the natural gas. You cannot get to the conclusion that we can reduce foreign oil in quantities that are meaningful without natural gas.”

Pickens has been promoting a simple plan that would split vehicles into light and heavy categories. Light vehicles, like passenger cars, could be run on batteries. Heavy vehicles, like commercial trucks, would be converted to run on natural gas. The switch would be easy enough, and would ween the country off of crude oil that tends to benefit regimes that are hostile to U.S. interests.

“This is the most unbelievable opportunity for a president of the United States,” Pickens said.

The main complaint about alternative energy vehicles in the past has always boiled down to lack of reliability and price. In order to get consumers to switch, the cars need to perform as well as gas powered ones do, and must cost about the same. In fact, in order to get the massive sort of adoption needed to switch our nation to these new vehicles, it would be even better if the cars would cheap. Cheaper, lighter cars with fuel efficiency built-in would probably appeal to most consumers who haven’t yet forgotten the pain of paying $4.50/gallon at the pump.

It also seems likely that the Obama team will embrace wind, solar, and nuclear energy in the coming years. All these forms of energy production are potentially superior to current electrical generation methods, especially in their impact on the environment.

Obama is attempting to stimulate the moribund economy with a public works project of immense magnitude. He’s hoping to create jobs by pushing the country to a green future. So far few details have emerged on how he’ll accomplish the task, but public buildings will be an obvious place to start. In the next few weeks and months we can expect a flurry of activity concerning exactly what proposals are taking shape.

Tags: Foreign Oil