Achieving Energy Independence
America has become dangerously dependent on foreign oil imports. In his 2006 State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush bluntly stated, "America is addicted to oil."
Democrats see the dangers in foreign oil too, with notables such as Al Gore and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama calling for a decrease in U.S. consumption of foreign oil. There are three major problems with U.S. dependence on foreign oil:
- Huge sums of money are being sent overseas to pay for oil, instead of circulating here in the U.S.
- Foreign oil is a vulnerable energy source, and a prime target for geopolitical and terrorist disruption
- The cost in both lives and economic resources to maintain the flow of foreign oil is unacceptable
In his 2007 State of the Union address, President Bush set the goal of reducing U.S. gasoline use 20% within 10 years—"and the way forward is through technology," he said. "We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol—using everything from wood chips, to grasses, to agricultural wastes."
The closed-loop system employed by E3 BioFuels is doing that today.
We are in the last days of the age of oil. Perhaps I would say the last decades, but clearly this is going to be the century of new technology, of renewable resources.
—Mike Bowlin, CEO of ARCO Oil
Limited domestic capacity
There is a shortage of domestic petroleum refining capacity in the U.S. No new refineries have been built in the U.S. since 1976, and the current refineries are operating above normal maximum operating capacity to meet demand.
As shown by the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, temporary loss of production (in case of fire, storms, or accidents) causes immediate regional gasoline price spikes.
Because we cannot produce enough usable energy from oil, we are forced to import—and getting oil into the country requires sending a great deal of money overseas.
Enormous costs
As of 2007, we import nearly 10 million barrels of oil a day; that's 58% of our consumption.
Because of limited domestic supply, that number is currently projected to only increase until our foreign-oil consumption has doubled to 20 million barrels a day by 2025.
Even at the current rate, we're spending $13 million an hour—$200,000 a minute—on foreign oil. These amounts ignore the military expenditures made in the Middle East and elsewhere in order to assure that the US has access to oil.
A switch to domestic energy sources would not only serve to keep more of that $200,000 a minute in American hands, but it would also reduce the need for U.S. military responses when our energy sources are threatened.
Startling vulnerability
This enormous expenditure to quench our national thirst for oil is not the only danger associated with foreign oil.
The world is increasingly unstable, and it doesn't make sense for the U.S. to rely on other countries, even allies, to provide us with a resource as fundamentally necessary as energy.
In fact, the Middle East and North Africa are becoming larger suppliers of oil each year, and they'll be exporting 44 percent of the world's oil by 2030. And the farther energy needs to be transported, the more opportunities there are for disruption along the way.
In the end, America needs a solution to its foreign oil addiction that we can put into place now. The Genesis plant in Mead, Nebraska, shows that we don't have to wait for some scientific breakthrough to start producing more domestic energy: we can do it using the technology that's already available.
At E3 BioFuels, THE FUTURE IS HERE, THE FUTURE IS NOW.