Issue #3
November 2001
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Getting Off the Petroleum Economy
by Gerry Krownstein
As long as our economy requires the massive amounts of oil that it currently does, our thinking about, and relationships with, Middle Eastern nations will remain hopelessly muddled. We pay attention to other countries to the extent that they have something we need: markets, manufactured goods, raw materials or geographic location. We pay attention to South Korea to some extent because, during the Cold War, it was a test case for drawing the line between communist and capitalist societies; for the past decade, however, we have paid attention to South Korea because they are a major trading partner, providing markets for us and supplying manufactured goods, especially electronics, automobiles and clothing. For most of the nations in the Middle East, we pay attention to them for one of two reasons: oil and Israel.
Jordan, Syria and Lebanon derive their importance to us because of their Israeli borders. Iraq is important because of oil and the possibility of its having produced biological or nuclear weapons. Iran and Afghanistan are important because of geographical factors that have existed since the days of the Silk Road, and because Iran, if it ever shakes off clerical Fascism, has the potential to be a significant modern state. Egypt has historically been a major regional power, with an economy of significance to the rest of the world, and could be again if internal politics permitted. The states on the Arabian peninsula are important for only one reason: oil.
Saudi Arabia is the world's largest exporter of petroleum, and also the world's largest exporter of primitive Moslem fundamentalism, hatred of the US and Israel, and cash in support of terrorist activities. To prop up a shaky monarchy originally installed by the British, the Saudi royal family has created a pact with the religious fringe that accepts the primacy of Wahabi fundamentalist mullahs in foreign policy and education in exchange for political peace at home. It is no coincidence that the majority of September 11 hijackers were Saudi.
It is to our advantage to reduce the importance of the Gulf states in our lives, and to reduce the resources they have available for fomenting trouble. The only realistic way to do this is to wean the US economy from a dependance on Gulf oil, and the only realistic way to do that is by reducing our need for petroleum. This requires a three-fold approach: reduce our immediate oil needs through conservation; substitute other petroleum sources for Gulf sources; and substitute other technologies for the production of electricity and the creation of chemicals now derived from petroleum.
Conservation can save more petroleum, short-term and long-term, than any conceivable expansion of drilling in Alaska and other ecologically vulnerable US locations. It was conservation that broke the back of the Arab oil boycott in the 70's. Since then, not only have we not advanced in energy savings, we have given back some of the gains made then. There is plenty that can be achieved, without any significant impact on our life-styles, and with major expansion of profits. Conservation has been proven to be good business.
Other petroleum sources, including from Russia and other non-Gulf states, can be purchased preferentially. With the right incentives, a wedge can be driven between Gulf producers and other OPEC members, destroying or at least inhibiting the OPEC cartel.
Second only to conservation in importance, the development of alternative energy sources is our ticket to petroleum freedom. Development of crop-based fuels to replace fossil fuels and some petrochemicals is well along; other resources (wind, water and geothermal) can be put use to generate electricity. A hydrogen economy beats a petroleum economy when it comes to political and environmental benefits. Nuclear energy production is stalled by the intractable problem of waste disposal and decomissioning of radioactive structures.
Getting off the petroleum economy would prevent the Gulf states from henceforth holding hostage our foreign policy and our economy. We should make it an urgent goal. Congress must lead the way in convincing an Administration made up largely of Texas oilmen that the defeat of terrorism and the safety of the US depend in great measure on achieving that goal, and we as citizens must hold Congressional feet to the fire to make them lead the way.
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