He may have ruffled a few feathers in Tehran and Caracas, but U.S. Sen. John McCain has hit upon what should be the key issue of the 2008 presidential campaign: American energy dependence. Addressing the subject goes in and out of fashion in the United States, but the problem seems to deepen every day.
About 75 percent of the world’s oil is controlled by distant governments, some unfriendly like Iran, others unpredictable like Venezuela. Russia, a growing producer, has been behaving erratically. The central Asian republics are in transition, and uncertainties even plague reliable suppliers: This week, Kuwait narrowly averted a crisis when the ailing emir stepped aside for his cousin. Saudi Arabia is often beset by political intrigue. Iraq? Where do we begin?
The United States holds only 2.9 percent of the globe’s proven crude reserves but is the world’s biggest consumer, using about a quarter of the world’s daily production. That dependency is a national security disaster waiting to happen.
“We’ve got to get quickly on a track to energy independence from foreign oil …” Sen. McCain said on Fox News Sunday. “We better understand the vulnerabilities that our economy, and our very lives, have when we’re dependent on Iranian mullahs and wackos in Venezuela.”
His “wacko” comment, aimed at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, drew an angry rebuke from Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel, who said McCain can “go to hell.” The exchange showed McCain’s best and worst traits: He tells it like he sees it, but sometimes his rhetoric diverts attention from his fundamental message.
He’s right. The United States is more dependent on oil imports than when Jimmy Carter donned his cardigan and declared the energy crisis the moral equivalent of war. In 1970s, the United States imported 36 percent of its oil; today, it’s 62 percent. With world oil production already running at 97 percent of capacity, any disruption in supply could produce a global economic shock.
McCain said finding a solution “means, among other things, going back to nuclear power.” We’re open minded about that, but at best it only addresses one problem.
Electricity can be generated by coal, natural gas, solar, wind or nuclear. But cars and trucks don’t run on electricity (at least not yet). Almost all our imported oil is used to make vehicle fuels. More nuclear power simply won’t wean the U.S. from foreign oil.
The congressional election of 2006 and the presidential election of 2008, should include a hard-nosed discussion of steps to lessen America’s dangerous dependance on fuel from volatile regions of the world.
