Republican Election Fix on Energy Independence

Republican Election Fix on Energy Independence

Trump complains the election is fixed, but he is fixing the US on the expensive idea of Energy Independence.

Another part of the energy billionaire fix is the emphasis on the idea of Energy Independence. We are no longer in a world war, where enemies torpedo boats carrying commerce on the Atlantic or Pacific. Even terrorist attacks cannot make a dent in the thousands of oil wells in the Middle East. The first Gulf War was to liberate Kuwait from being ruled by the invader Saddam Hussein of Iraq, and it was relatively easy. We now have oil exports from Iran as well to add to the global oil market.

The idea of energy independence appeals to Trump and to his supporters who seem to favor isolationism, xenophobia, and Trump’s foreign policy of “America First”.

The Energy Independence movement by industry is to force US consumers to develop and buy the more expensive US shale oil for gasoline, and more expensive energy from coal, rather than cheaper natural gas. Drilled liquid oil used to be produced in the US for $20 per barrel. It is produced in the Middle East for a few dollars per barrel. Saudi Arabia contains a majority of the cheaply drilled oil reserves. Europe does not have shale oil reserves, and is dependent on Middle East oil or Russian oil. Hence, we must defend Middle East oil countries into the future.

OPEC had driven the price up to over $100 per barrel by limiting production. As US and Canadian tar sands and shale oil began to sell for $50 per barrel, Saudi Arabia increased production to lower the price of oil to the current $40 per barrel, and put the new US oil developments out of business. Saudi Arabia, a Sunni country, also may have been opposing Iran’s Shia intervention in Iraq and Syria. A large part of Iran’s budget comes from oil sales.

Right now, forcing the US to become energy independent would raise the current price of a barrel of oil by the order of 25%. It doesn’t matter if OPEC raises the price high again, because even US oil is sold on a world market, and the oil tycoons are not going to sell US oil cheap to the US out of patriotism.

Since there are not many oil pipelines to California from the rest of the US, California relies on its own oil and imports from Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. Smog prevention gasoline blends already raise the cost of California gasoline well above the US cost of gasoline. Requiring us to buy expensive US produced oil would further penalize us.

In Republican support for restored coal production, raising the US price of electrical energy to pay for the higher cost of coal instead of natural gas will also increase pollution and the US contribution to global warming. Using US produced natural gas makes us just as energy independent in electrical energy as using polluting coal. Also, US wind and solar energy again makes us more energy independent.

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
This entry was posted in 2016 Election, Climate Change, Coal, Donald Trump, Economies, Fossil Fuel Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Natural Gas, Oil, Politics. Bookmark the permalink.

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