Diversifying our energy is imminent
security concern
BY MODESTO MAIDIQUE
AND GEORGE PHILIPPIDIS
Special to The Miami Herald |
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 For
anyone who thinks a $700 billion bailout is a lot of money
for Americans to commit to this economic rescue plan, consider
this: In this country, we spend about that much on foreign
oil every single year. And what do we have to show for
it?
Over the
past 30 years, our dependence on foreign oil has perilously
increased from 20 percent to 62 percent, giving OPEC enormous
leverage over U.S. policy. Cheap gasoline in the United
States (half of what Europeans pay) for years has fueled
our disregard for energy conservation and efficiency. While
other nations not as rich as the United States have been
pursuing alternative forms of energy — such as biofuels,
solar, wind and nuclear — we have been treating energy
as an issue of secondary importance. As developing countries
consume more of the world’s oil production and new
oil discoveries flatten, the United
States is facing a dan-gerous situation with regard to
its energy security.
The only way to secure America’s future is by
aggressively increasing the nation’s fuel efficiency
while investing in domestic fuel and
energy sources as soon as possible. It is a matter of national
security and should be treated as such — nothing
less than a new Manhattan project. We are the world’s
leader in research and inge-nuity, but we lack a long-term
vision and, so far, the political will to implement energy diversification
regardless of the price of oil.
THOSE LEADING WAY
Brazil
is a prime example of the opposite: A country with a fraction of ourresources
has achieved fuel diversity and even self-sufficiency.
Since the 1970s, it has instituted a long-term
policy of ethanol and flexi-ble-fuel vehicle production,
allowing its citizens to
choose their fuel among etha-nol, gasoline and natural
gas. It was not easy, but govern-ment and the private sector
worked together despite eco-nomic and political chal-lenges.
Similarly,
large European countries like Germany and Spain are on their way to
making biofuels, solar and wind energy
a major compo-nent of their energy portfo-lios. The United
Kingdom is tapping ocean energy, while over half of France’s
electric-ity comes from nuclear energy.
A combination of tax incentives and greenhouse-gas emission
mandates have led to widespread adoption
of renewables in Europe.
A PLACE TO START
The
United States is by far the world’s largest importer
and consumer of oil. Our transportation
sector burns 10 million barrels of gasoline a day, an amount almost
equal to all of the oil we
import. Our goal should not be to simply replace oil with
another single fuel, but rather to introduce
a variety of alternatives to oil. We
have a number of options at our disposal. First and fore-most,
we should start with biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel.
The most signifi-cant domestic source of these fuels is abundant, inedible
and inexpensive biomass — plant material such as
wood waste, corn stover, wheat straw, sugar cane bagasse
and yard waste. Although great technical
progress has been achieved to date, a long-term policy
that makes bio-fuels a top national priority will attract private invest-ment to
accelerate their com-mercialization in the next
five years.
At the same time, U.S.
energy policy should boost investment in automotive
technologies that enhance fuel economy, regardless
of the fuel used, and reduce
emissions of climate-chang-ing gases. More than 70 per-cent of Americans drive
under 25 miles a day, which can be readily accommo-dated
with newly developed plug-in rechargeable batter-ies, while
longer distances can be powered by biofuels. Such a combination
of new technologies could drop our gasoline use by as much
as 75 percent within 10 years, significantly freeing the
United States from its oil dependence
once and for all.
The government should not dictate which biofuelsand automotive
technologies should make it to the com-mercial arena — this
should be left to market forces.
However, since energy secu-rity is of national importance,
the government should man-date that all new vehicles be
made fuel-flexible, no longer limiting us to the use of
only oil products. Financial incen-tives should be provided
directly to U.S. consumers to switch to flex-fuel and
plug-in hybrid vehicles. It is criminal to send billions
of dollars every year to rogue oil-producing nations, when
we can spend a fraction of that amount to help Ameri-can
consumers change their habits and stop this monu-mental hemorrhage of
national wealth.
THE ROAD AHEAD
The road to energy inde-pendence will be fraught
with difficulties. It will takevision , execution and
patience. But above all, it will take political will to
turn the United States into an econ-omy that is fueled by a
diverse array of energy sources and
is no longer hos-tage to oil. Fuel and energy diversity — biofuels frombiomass,
solar, wind, nuclear and others — will lead to
price competition benefiting the U.S. consumer and help
usher the country into an era of long-term energy and
national security.
Dr. Modesto Maidique is president
of Florida Interna-tional
University, co-author of ‘‘Energy
Future,’’ a New York Times best seller, and has
served on the U.S. Secretary of Energy’s Advisory
Board. Dr. George Philippidis is energy director at FIU
and an expert in energy and biofuels with experience in
both the private and public sectors.
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