The United States, like the rest of the developed
world, is living beyond its means. The Bush administration has been
vocal about raising standards of living and anticipates that energy
demands will rise steadily over the next twenty years. At the same
time, local oil production is steadily decreasing. In the mid ninties,
local crude oil production slipped below imported oil [graph].
The following illustration is from the White
House National Energy Policy Document. The crunch is that the
United States' reliance on imported oil is accelerating at a time
when the developing economies of East Asia are seeking more and
more of the same oil.
| |
industry influence |
"Cheney-led task force consulted extensively with corporate
executives. Its findings boosted their interests. Environmental
groups had little voice." LA
Times August 2001 |
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world energy |
In just 100 years, the world population has grown from 1.5
billion to over 6 billion people, who will have to depend on
energy sources that are still to be researched and developed.
Fidel
Castro March 7, 2003 counterpunch |
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Steve Cassiani |
"Steve Cassiani, president of Exxon Mobil Upstream Research
Company, said that global oil demand through to 2010 was expected
to rise at two percent per year, and gas demand was expected
to rise three percent each year. "The difficulty is that
while global demand increases, existing production declines,"
he said... We expect by 2010 about half the daily volume needed
to meet projected demand will come from fields not on
production today." Yahoo
Finance March 25, 2003 |
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US currency |
" America's economic vulnerability to oil-price fluctuations
has led Washington to strike a tacit bargain with Saudi
Arabia and other Persian Gulf oil producers. In return for
U.S. military protection and silence about the more unsavory
aspects of their societies, these countries increase production
when prices get too high and cut it when they get too low. In
addition, they price their oil in dollars and recycle their
petro-profits through U.S. financial institutions." Ricardo
Bayon in Atlantic Monthly, January 2003 |
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Iraqi Oil |
" The second inescapable reality of the post-twentieth-century
world is that the security of the world's oil and gas supplies
will remain a vital national interest of the United States and
of the other industrial powers. The Persian Gulf . . . is still
a region of many uncertainties. . . . In this 'new energy order'
many of the most important geopolitical decisions--ones on which
a nation's sovereignty can depend--will deal with the location
and routes for oil and gas pipelines. In response, our strategy,
our diplomacy, and our forward military presence need readjusting."
Robert
Dole, then Senate Majority Leader, in Atlantic Monthly, April
1996 |
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Iraqi Oil |
" Facing its most chronic shortage in oil stocks for
27 years, the US has this month turned to an unlikely source
of help - Iraq. Weeks before a prospective invasion of Iraq,
the oil-rich state has doubled its exports of oil to America,
helping US refineries cope with a debilitating strike in Venezuela."
UK
Observer January 26, 2003 |
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World oil consumption increase |
"... during the next oil crisis a new, important complication
will arise: the competition for oil will increasingly come from
the rapidly growing countries of Asia. Indeed, in the early
1970s East Asia consumed well under half as much oil as the
United States, but by the time of the next crisis East Asian
nations will probably be consuming more oil than we do."
Atlantic
Monthly, April 1996 |
US
energy demand
US
energy demand