Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (7604)	3/16/2004 12:56:49 AM
From: Karen Lawrence	Respond to of 81568

So it's Kerry v. Bush. If the candidates deliver an honest debate on our economy and security, we’ll be talking about energy this year. We already know the two perspectives. Team Bush denies the scientific consensus on global warming, calls for redundant research and subsidizes oil, coal and natural gas. Kerry calls for “a new Manhattan Project to make America independent of Middle East oil in 10 years by creating alternative fuels like ethanol and making cars more efficient.” Among other things, his plan would create “half-a-million new jobs.” What seems to be a stark contrast, however, isn’t. Kerry’s objectives are a move in the right direction, but they do not go far enough or fast enough. The Middle East supplies only 17 percent of our total crude oil consumption or 28 percent of imports. That means America would still be dependent on the global oil market, which is increasingly reliant on Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. As long as we get our oil on the global market, we will be chained to the dysfunctional politics of the Middle East. Fortunately for Kerry, he won’t need to study the problem for another decade. It turns out that three months before the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment published its explosive report about the threat posed by climate change (see Climate Change Alert), it published another report entitled, “A Strategy: Moving America Away from Oil.” The report, prepared by the Arlington Institute, outlines how to wean the United States off oil completely in 15 years. That’s well beyond Kerry’s 17 percent reduction over 10 years. (Read the report here.) Oil, Oil, Oil The report states plainly that our addiction to oil does more harm to American interests than good: “. . . The geopolitical issues associated with a major dependency on a raw material that is often found in politically unstable areas have come to a head, contributing in part to two Persian Gulf conflicts in the last dozen years.” The last senior government official to admit that Iraq was about oil was then-Secretary of State James Baker a dozen years ago. Cheney, Rice, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld may forever change their rationale for invading Iraq, but here we have a matter-of-fact statement that America’s dependency on oil played a role in our two wars in Iraq. As the excuses for Operation Iraqi Freedom—WMD, terror and democracy—all fall by the wayside, it is encouraging to know that some folks in the Pentagon who know it was about oil, think things need to change and are willing to act. The report continues that same straightforward talk as it delivers an assessment of our energy security situation. The reality is that we are a nation made extremely (and unnecessarily) vulnerable by our dependence on oil. Oil provides virtually all the energy for our transportation system and we import nearly 60 percent of our supply. Our trading partners in the developed world and the growing economies of China, India and South Korea are all similarly dependent and insecure. It’s this global dependence on oil that determines the threats we face: destabilized producing regions and supply routes, extreme price swings, vulnerable concentrations of infrastructure and energy scarcity among the 5/6ths of the world’s population in the developing world. Add the quite plausible “wild cards” like abrupt climate change, and this net assessment is dismal. Since this report was published last August, America has followed its trajectory for the worst-case scenario, called “turbulent world.” The United States is mired in military protection of oil reserves around the world, our credibility is damaged, prices for gasoline and natural gas are high and upstream energy investment is off pace with projected demand. As it gets worse, the authors project, terrorist incidents will increase, investor and consumer confidence will drop, the government will shift from band-aid to band-aid and carbon emissions will rise, accelerating climate change. (cont'd) tompaine.com