Currently the U.S. imports over half of its oil (around 58 percent) from the Middle East. Current events have shown us that this area of the world is not terribly stable, politically speaking, and if something should happen to disrupt our supply of oil, we would quickly find ourselves in serious trouble.

So, will drilling in Alaska solve our woes? Will the oil that we get from our own state protect us from the big, bad men who control foriegn oil? The answer: probably not. The U.S. uses about six billion barrels of oil per year. According to www.ANWR.org, a pro-drilling group, the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge harbors somewhere between 5.7 and 16 billion barrels of oil. Of this, approximately nine billion barrels are likely to be “economically recoverable.” Now, for the next minor hurdle, when will the ANWR oil be recoverable? Let’s try about another 10 years before we start to see any of that oil. It will likely be another 20 years after that until we see the last of the oil. The point being-our energy usage rises at around 1.5% annually. The fraction of our usage coming out of Alaska therefore gets smaller every year. More than this, however, the oil that we pump out of there is not going to come all at once to magically replace our foreign oil. Instead the oil will be slowly dribbled into the U.S. oil stream. While this will act to somewhat offset the quantity of oil imported from the Middle East, the overall effect on a year to year basis will likely be quite small.

I say that the best way to divest ourselves from foreign oil is to divest ourselves from all oil. The time has clearly come to seriously investigate other energy sources, such as energy efficiency, fuel cells, and renewable energy, yet we continue to dump money into an industry that is doomed to failure. No matter how you slice it, oil is a non-renewable resource and it causes pollution. We have the technology to provide energy to consumers that is clean, reliable, and cost-effective. While our politicians make multi-billion dollar concessions to corporate sponsors we, and our planet, are poisoned by an outdated fuel source.

Energy is a tricky subject, and there aren’t any easy answers. The power to change is in the hands of the American people. We are not slaves to the oil establishment, and our voices can make a difference. I know that there are people out there who are willing to fight for the defense and preservation of our natural world. By making responsible energy choices and by telling our government that we will not accept the destruction of nature to fuel our own greed and shortsighted development, we can make a difference! Through energy conservation, intelligent foreign policy, and diversification of our energy sources to include, in a substantial way, renewable energies, it is possible to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and to protect our vital national security and preserve the health of our environment and ourselves.