August 13, 2008 | Articles/Op-Eds

The Road To American Energy Independence

This column originally appeared in The Philadelphia Bulletin on August 13, 2008. You can read the article on The Bulletin’s website.

As energy prices and the cost of living are rising, many elected officials seem content to wring their hands in indignation rather than wringing the necks of those responsible. So, we the people are left to decide our energy future.

Three numbers are keys to a solution. The first is 2 trillion, the second is 86 billion and the third is 16 billion. These numbers account for the amount in barrels of proven oil reserves the United States possesses in the Rocky Mountains, the offshore continental shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The Rocky Mountain region alone represents three times the known oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. The offshore continental shelf holds enough oil to supply U.S. demand for a dozen years, according to a recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Further, the Congressional Research Service, an arm of the Library of Congress, estimates that if we opened only the Alaskan wilderness, we would see a surge in tax revenues of $191 billion from domestic sales. That’s $191,000,000,000 … without levying any new taxes.

While no serious politician, energy executive or environmentally conscious American believes that we can “drill our way” out of the current energy crisis, our dependence on foreign regimes for our energy supplies has proven disastrous.

“Oil money pays for the bombs going off from Baghdad to Beirut, and the bombast of dictators from Caracas to Tehran,” said Sen. Barack Obama recently in Michigan. “Our nation will not be secure unless we take that leverage away, and our planet will not be safe unless we move decisively toward a clean energy future.”

All Americans desire that “clean energy future,” and developing a 21st century American energy policy is crucial for our stability into the next generation.

To develop clean and sustainable energy, though, will require research, development and significant domestic investment.

Imagine, then, if the United States were to put that potential $191 billion in tax revenue just from our Alaskan reserves toward such vital research and development through subsidies, prizes and incentives to develop better flex fuels and a cost effective hydrogen solution.

Americans are ready for change when it comes to the use of domestic energy resources. According to a poll last month by Zogby, 74 percent of likely voters support offshore drilling. In other words, a tri-partisan majority of Americans – 58 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of Independents and 90 percent of Republicans – support repealing the ban on domestic drilling.

American Solutions for Winning the Future, a non-partisan political group in the nation’s capital, has garnered nearly 1.5 million signatures for its “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” petition, urging Congress to repeal the federal moratorium that has prohibited domestic expansion for more than two decades.

Perhaps most surprising in this debate is that China has already begun drilling just 60 miles off the coast of Florida. Have we strayed so far on sensible energy and security policy under what Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised would be the “best Congress ever” that drilling off our shores is pursued by Communist China but not allowed in the free market United States?

We cannot reasonably expect to find a sustainable solution to our energy demands over the long-term by banning domestic exploration in the short term.

The American solution to this crisis surely is not to remain content with our failed status quo, funding “bombs from Baghdad to Beirut” by lining the pockets of regimes hostile to the American values. Rather, we can choose to apply ourselves to domestic exploration by petitioning Congress to act.

Only then can we wean ourselves from debilitating dependence on foreign dictatorships and the crippling wealth transfers that result, simultaneously harnessing new tax revenues and applying them toward American entrepreneurs, empowering those who will develop the next generation of sustainable fuel technology.