America's Oil Addiction

The government sure loves its gadgets, and puts a lot of faith in them.

Pilotless drone aircraft with electronics to knock out the enemy's communication.

Smart bombs for precision strikes to reduce "collateral damage" to civilians (how nice for the civilians).

Missile defense shields.

Information collection networks that could collect all of our buying transactions to look for suspicious patterns that might lead to terrorists.

We are assured that oil companies can go into delicate, protected environmental areas and drill for oil without causing any environmental problems or upsetting Mother Nature.

Duct tape and plastic. Oh, yeah, those are gadgets. Just illusions of safety.

So, if our society can develop these neat little techno-baubles, then why can't we get more mileage out of our cars and trucks?

In a recent op-ed piece, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the U.S. uses 25 percent of the world's oil, yet has only 3 percent of the reserves. Increasing cars to an average of 40 miles per gallon by 2012 would save nearly 2 million barrels daily -- more than what we imported from Saudi Arabia in 2002 and three times our Iraq imports. An increase to 50 miles per gallon by 2020 would save 5 million barrels daily (twice the current Persian Gulf imports).

Yet, this administration's response to our oil needs is more drilling and mining and more nuclear power plants -- solutions that would take nearly the same amount of time to achieve.

Simply, this country has an oil addiction. And like any addict, we need to be weaned off the stuff that we jones for. Drilling for new oil reserves or building new nuke plants is simply pointing the addict toward new connections, not toward any type of treatment or rehab.

Now, it's unrealistic to expect our country to give up its cars and SUVs (as a disclaimer, the Midwest Voice does drive an SUV -- a fact that will be remedied within a month when a current lease expires and the household acquires a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle). But it shouldn't be unrealistic to ask American industry to design more fuel efficient vehicles. We already see it in hybrid cars. There's no rational reason not to expand that inventiveness to all cars, especially with a nine- to 17-year lead time.

This country prides itself on American Know-How, a Can Do Attitude and all that stuff. We've certainly shown it in the past.

Why not now? Why not put before the American people and American industry the same challenge that JFK did with space travel, but with oil independence in mind? If oil is such a big part of our lifestyle and our national interest and security, isn't it time we distance ourselves from our suppliers?

But then, that would require the Oilmen in the administration to state as policy a shift away from Big Oil. And with Campaign fund raising just around the corner.

Yeah, right.

© Copyright 2003 Keith Jameson. Last update: 2/18/2003; 7:51:13 AM.