It’s war: Personal foreign oil independence isn’t enough

Personal foreign oil independence isn't the path to US energy indpendence

When is enough, enough?

America needs a goal, a dream, a national energy policy

If you are personally foreign oil independent today — at last theoretically — I salute you. I know many that have contributed to this blog over the years that have achieved such a goal.

But is that really enough?

If a $6.00 per gallon gasoline spike crushes friends, family, and economy, will personal energy independence really mean that much?

Not long after 9/11, I pretty much gave up driving for a few years. I just couldn’t be responsible for the next 9/11, the next oil war. It wasn’t easy and it came with costs, or rather serious limitations — limitations most simply won’t accept, and that my family has often fought against, unless there is no other choice. But I just couldn’t live with myself without such drastic actions. For me, there was no other choice.

While I drive more today — mostly because of family responsibilities and bit of complacency — I still only drive a few thousand miles every year, mostly long distance trips. And that’s combined, family of 4, yearly mileage. On a day-to-day basis, I can still survive without a car, and have for long periods of time over the last decade.

But has that really made the world around me that much better?

The next oil war, for instance, appears almost inevitable. Have my actions really made the world that much safer for my kids?

Even if the current foreign oil crisis is averted, and only a gasoline spike is felt, it seems obvious that the Middle East situation is becoming more dangerous, not less. The next foreign oil-driven crisis is already on deck.

At this point in the conversation, my wife asks, and what can you do about it?

And she’s right. I’ve pretty much done everything I can. There is no easy or perfect solution to these problems. Even worse, any real solution has to be significantly driven by domestic fossil fuels in the short term  — something I used to argue against. Damn, my hypocrisy!

But do we really have a choice?

In recent days the political spin around issues like fracking or Keystone has morphed. It’s not that they are a serious environmental danger compared to the status quo, but rather that they further embrace the status quo, which is so obviously unsustainable.

Ironically, this unsustainable argument regarding foreign oil dependence has been made over and over for decades. But has much really changed, except the dangers, which appear to be escalating?

All we do is talk, talk, talk.

More important, is it really impossible to envision a long term energy policy that embraces domestic fossil fuels in the short term while methodically building out sustainable solutions over the long term? Why is that innovation can achieve fairy tale solutions, but it can’t solve today’s real world problems? Can’t it do both?

In my opinion, simply by declaring war on foreign oil dependence today — coupled with an aggressive energy policy — we could send a serious message to the rest of the world. Likewise, we could create a job’s program right now that would excite the economy and Wall Street. Yes, such a program would probably incite another bubble, like the mortgage and Internet bubbles before, but this time at least we’d be left with energy independence and a bunch of technologies we could sell to the rest of the world.

If we keep pushing the technology, keep driving innovation around efficiency, especially the kind of long term efficiencies that government and big corporations can tolerate, a sustainable and energy efficient future only makes more and more sense. That’s why a short term embrace of fossil fuels doesn’t have to last. Why it wouldn’t last as part of a logical long term energy policy. Efficiency and sustainability will simply be more cost-effective, but it will take time. More importantly, it will take long term thinking and actions.

But it begins with a declaration of war against foreign oil dependence, and a particular embrace of the role that domestic fossil fuels must play in the short term. They are, unfortunately and ironically, the beginning of US energy independence, but also the end of fossil fuel dependence.

However, those supposedly fighting the status quo by attacking fracking or things like Keystone are actually only helping to maintain the status quo by creating division, indecision, and inaction — delaying any real change — just as those that can only envision drill, drill, drill are doing.

Ultimately, both sides are only half right.

There was a time when I believed that personal foreign oil independence would eventually create a market shift by trickling down to average consumers. It will, as long as we have decades to wait. But do we really have decades?

If not, then there is only one alternative: It’s time to stop declaring war on each other, and instead focus on defeating foreign oil dependence as quickly as possible — together — as part of a long term plan to a clean, efficient, and evermore cost effective sustainable future.

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