Publication: Daedalus
Publication Date: 22-JUN-06
Delivery: Immediate Online Access
Author: Brown, Marilyn A. ; Sovacool, Benjamin K. ; Hirsh, Richard F.
Article Excerpt
For decades, our political leaders have told us that we need to use energy more efficiently and derive more of it from domestic sources. (1) Since the energy crisis of 1973, U.S. presidents have declared the need to gain independence from unstable foreign energy suppliers and to do so with the same moral fortitude as if fighting a war. Some politicians have proposed massive government programs to achieve the goals of their energy policies; others have sought to unleash free-market forces that would encourage companies to develop novel sources of energy and motivate consumers to use energy more wisely.
Despite more than three decades of such efforts, the United States has not achieved the goal of energy independence. While progress in adopting more energy-efficient technologies has saved billions of dollars throughout the economy, most other indicators of energy autonomy--such as the percentage of imported fuel--demonstrate that the country has become less independent than ever. President Bush acknowledged this fact in his recent State of the Union address, telling Americans that the country has become "addicted to oil" and urging citizens to find alternative ways to satisfy their energy needs. For those with a sense of history, Bush's clarion call sounded eerily familiar.
Even though energy efficiency has taken root in some sectors of the economy, it has not compensated for the growth in energy consumption that has occurred since 1973, nor will it (if current trends continue) accommodate the growth that forecasters anticipate in coming decades. Moreover, America's dependence on oil from insecure or politically unstable countries has required extensive diplomatic and military efforts that incur huge costs borne by energy users and taxpayers. Today's information economy also remains inextricably tied to reliable power and to just-in-time manufacturing and distribution processes that depend on fleets of petroleum-guzzling trucks and airplanes.
Disruptions in increasingly fragile energy systems can cause havoc to the nation's economy and to everyday life. We have already had a taste of such disruptions in the form of the California electricity crisis of 2000 to 2001, the 2003 Northeast blackout, and the fuel-supply interruptions resulting from the Gulf Coast hurricanes in 2005. These disruptions may be trivial preludes to what could be more substantial future catastrophes. Indeed, the country faces at least five immense and interconnected energy challenges due to (1) the risk of oil-supply disruptions; (2) increasing electricity usage; (3) a fragile electric-power (and overall energy) infrastructure; (4) the lack of sustained efforts to push energy-efficiency practices; and (5) the growing environmental impacts of increasing energy consumption.
First, the United States remains vulnerable to the risk of oil-supply disruptions, despite plenty of warnings over the past three decades. In 1973 the Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) orchestrated an oil embargo, the first supply disruption to cause major price increases and a worldwide energy crisis. In unadjusted terms, the price of oil on world markets rose from $2.90 per barrel in September 1973 to $11.65 per barrel in December 1973. Further price hikes and economic repercussions accompanied the Iranian revolution in 1979. Eleven years later--in 1990--when Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait, OPEC controlled roughly 5.5 million barrels per day (MBD) of spare capacity, enough to replace the oil...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.
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