As much oil as the United States produces, it still must import 40 percent of the oil we need for transportation. Much of that imported oil comes from OPEC member nations and other countries that don’t share our values. Reducing our dependence on oil will shrink its power and influence, making the U.S. a stronger nation.
Funding Terrorism
Funding Terrorism
THE CHALLENGE
Extremist groups have a wide array of revenue streams that fund their deadly operations. Selling illicit oil on the black market is a major one. But over the past two years, we’ve seen how the falling price of oil can upend this equation.
The Islamic State, or ISIS, used oil sales more efficiently than any other terrorism organization, seizing control of oil fields in Iraq and Syria as it swept across the region. In 2014, when oil was trading at $115, these sales allowed ISIS to kill and spread mayhem at will. But oil has plunged more than 50 percent since then, shrinking this key funding source for jihadists.
The impact has been startling: ISIS was forced to slash payments to fighters and other employees. In 2016, The Washington Post reported on the release of a cache of internal ISIS documents that revealed the group’s financial woes:
- Al-Tamimi, a research fellow with the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum, said the document does not reflect bonuses that might be paid to some of the group’s members for service on the front lines. But he said the low wages proffered are another reflection of the challenges faced by a terrorist group that has seen steep drops in revenue from oil sales as well as the physical destruction of some of its cash holdings.
When the price of oil drops, it takes money out of the pockets of terrorist groups and hostile regimes that harbor dangerous ideologies. Cutting those revenues then restricts the ability of extremists to carry out attacks. But the price of oil can spike without warning, so we need to ensure that oil remains low permanently.
FUEL FREEDOM AS ONE OF THE SOLUTIONS
The best way to dilute the oil monopoly is to use more alternative fuels at the pump, like ethanol, methanol, and compressed natural gas.
If more of the vehicles we drive today could consume fuels other than gasoline and diesel, the importance of oil would diminish. The influence and power enjoyed by the hostile regimes that control much of the global supply of oil would shrink as well.
Defending Oil Interests
Defending Oil Interests
THE CHALLENGE
The task of securing the global supply and transit of oil falls disproportionately to the U.S. military.
The United States has spent some $10 trillion over the past four decades to protect oil production and supply routes in the Persian Gulf, according to an analysis by Roger Stern, an economic geographer at Princeton University. “The massive investment in Persian Gulf force projection essentially precludes U.S. ability to project force elsewhere,” he told TIME.
Even if we produced all the oil we need domestically, we’d still be at the mercy of a volatile global market. Our dependence on imported oil means hundreds of billions of dollars leave the U.S. every year to oil-exporting nations, many of whom don’t share America’s values or are outwardly hostile to U.S. interests.
When there is a threat to the supply chain from violence or instability in the Middle East, too often the U.S. is forced to intervene. As Amory Lovins, a scientist and energy policy expert, puts it in the documentary PUMP: “Of course we have other interests in the region. It’s not all about oil, but it’s hard to believe that we would have fought a couple of wars there, and sent lots of troops there, if Kuwait just grew broccoli.”
FUEL FREEDOM AS ONE OF THE SOLUTIONS
The United States bears too much of the burden for security in the Middle East, just so the world can maintain access to reasonably priced oil. Without oil, and without cost-effective alternatives, the global economy would cease to function. By opening up the fuels market to alternatives like ethanol, natural gas, and electricity we can reduce our oil dependence. We can build a world where we don’t need to send our sons and daughters to hostile places to ensure we have a steady supply of crude.
Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy
THE CHALLENGE
In his State of the Union Address on Jan. 23, 1980, President Carter talked a great deal about oil. “Our excessive dependence on foreign oil is a clear and present danger to our nation’s security,” he said.
Later, he discussed the urgency of protecting the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, a “waterway through which most of the world’s oil must flow.” He added: “Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”
Time and again, the U.S. has made good on that promise, establishing dozens of military bases in the region and maintaining a constant presence of troops to ensure the free flow of oil. The Middle East also consumes a disproportionate share of our diplomatic efforts, because of our need for oil produced in this part of the world.
Our oil addiction leads us to enter into alliances with countries that don’t share our democratic values. Many of these allies trample on the civil rights of their own citizens. Yet they claim an outsize importance on the world stage because, thanks to the luck of geology, they possess a commodity the U.S. and other Western nations desperately need to keep their economies functioning.
FUEL FREEDOM AS ONE OF THE SOLUTIONS
Adding alternative fuels like ethanol, natural gas, and electricity to the transportation sector could end our dependence on oil as the only transportation fuel for the majority of vehicles. Diminishing oil’s strategic importance would allow the U.S. to shift its foreign policy to other regions, and other peoples, that receive little attention from the world’s greatest power.
