5 myths about energy independence

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5 Myths About Breaking Our Foreign Oil Habit

By Robert BryceSunday, January 13, 2008; B03

With oil prices still flirting with $100 a barrel, everyone is talking about the need for "energyindependence." Late last year,President Bush signed the Energy Independence and Security Actof 2007; Sen. John McCain has declared, "We need energy independence"; and Sen. BarackObamahas called for "serious leadership to get us started down the path of energyindependence."

This may all be good politics. But the idea that the United States, the world's single largestenergy consumer, can be independent of the $5 trillion-per-year energy business -- the world'ssingle biggest industry -- is ludicrous on its face. The push for energy independence is based ona series of falsepremises. Here are a few of the most pernicious ones.

1Energy independence will reduce or eliminate terrorism.

In a speech last year, former CIA director R. James Woolsey Jr. had some advice for Americanmotorists: "The next time you pull into a gas station to fill your car with gas, bend down a littleand take a glance in the side-door mirror. . . . What you will see is a contributor to terrorismagainst the United States." Woolsey is known as a conservative, but plenty of liberals have alsoeagerly adopted the mantra that America's foreign oil purchases are funding terrorism.

But the hype doesn't match reality. Remember, the two largest suppliers of crude to the U.S.market are Canada and Mexico -- neither exactly known as a belligerent terrorist haven.

Moreover, terrorism is an ancient tactic that predates the oil era. It does not depend onpetrodollars. And even small amounts of money can underwrite spectacular plots; as the 9/11Commission Report noted, "The 9/11 plotters eventually spent somewhere between $400,000and $500,000 to plan and conduct their attack." G.I. Wilson, a retired Marine Corps colonel whohas fought in Iraq and written extensively on terrorism and asymmetric warfare, calls theconflation of oil and terrorism a "contrivance." Support for terrorism "doesn't come from oil," hesays. "It comes from drugs, crime, human trafficking and the weapons trade."

2 A big push for alternative fuels will break our oil addiction.

The new energy bill requires that the country produce 36 billion gallons of biofuels per year by

2022. That sounds like a lot of fuel, but put it in perspective: The United States uses more than320 billion gallons of oil per year, of which nearly 200 billion gallons are imported.

So biofuels alone cannot wean the United States off oil. Let's say the country converted all thesoybeans grown by American farmers into biodiesel; that would provide only about 1.5 percentof total annual U.S. oil needs. And if the United States devoted its entire corn crop to producingethanol, it would supply only about 6 percent of U.S. oil needs.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/George+W.+Bush?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/John+McCain?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Barack+Obama?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Barack+Obama?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Canada?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Mexico?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/National+Commission+on+Terrorist+Attacks+Upon+the+United+States?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/National+Commission+on+Terrorist+Attacks+Upon+the+United+States?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Marine+Corps?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Iraq?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Iraq?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Marine+Corps?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/National+Commission+on+Terrorist+Attacks+Upon+the+United+States?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/National+Commission+on+Terrorist+Attacks+Upon+the+United+States?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Mexico?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Canada?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Barack+Obama?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Barack+Obama?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/John+McCain?tid=informlinehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/George+W.+Bush?tid=informline


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that the global energy market is just that: global. Anyone who argues that the United States willbe more secure by going it alone on energy hasn't done the homework.

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Robert Bryce is a fellow at the Institute for Energy Research. He is the author of the forthcoming"Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of 'Energy Independence.' "

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5 myths about energy independence

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