Each oil crisis spells a new energy future

The US government should follow Europe and Japan's lead in taxing energy to stave off oil addiction.

from the February 26, 2007 edition

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Some scientists assert that world oil resources are near their peak and may soon decline. However, reports of the US Geological Survey point out that peak oil production may not be as close as some have previously thought: Oil reserves are still about 42 times annual production levels. Long-term, alternative petroleum resources, such as the nearly 1 million barrels per day of crude oil that Canada now produces from oil sands and Venezuela's Orinoco tar sands, are promising.

Meanwhile, Venezuela's populist president, Hugo Chávez, seems bent on nationalizing all energy resources and directing exports to like-minded friends such as Fidel Castro's Cuba. Mr. Chávez's ideological cousins, such as Bolivia's Evo Morales, may follow his example by restricting needed foreign investments.

President Bush raised eyebrows in the Middle East by declaring in his 2006 State of the Union address that the US is "addicted" to foreign oil. Arabian Peninsula nations have fairly regularly boosted their sales to the US. Long ago, they stopped threatening 1973-type supply disruptions linked to US support for Israel, and US dependency on Arab oil grows year by year.

Crucially, neither Mr. Bush nor Congress does anything serious about US oil "addiction." Though China and India are beginning to catch up, the US is still the biggest user and importer of oil.

Although boosted by environmentalist concern over global warming, experimentation with noncarbon fuels such as ethanol and hydrogen, and energy sources such as wind power, lags far behind what could be called ideal progress.

What the US needs is what Europe and Japan are already successfully using to reduce carbon-fuel consumption: a hefty energy tax. A truly imaginative US initiative would be to devise ways to channel some of any such tax money into needed investments in energy infrastructure at home and abroad.

Sure, it's difficult and unpopular to tax energy. But failing such a drastic solution (and better US diplomacy), American oil consumers, as well as those in Europe and Asia, may experience new crosswinds of geopolitics and war.

The 2008 presidential hopefuls – Republican and Democrat – must be brave enough to bring big energy issues into their campaign platforms and debate them in public. That will be an uphill battle, but we all have a right to keep raising the subject and to hope that a principled politician will step up to the plate.

• John K. Cooley, a former Middle East and Pentagon Monitor correspondent published "An Alliance Against Babylon, the US, Israel and Iraq" and other books on the area.

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