Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991 TAG: 9102120483
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Other petroleum suppliers have long since made up global production lost from Iraq and Kuwait (although prices remain higher than before the August invasion). But defeating Iraq and toppling Saddam won't change a basic fact: The United States is again dangerously dependent on shipments of oil from abroad, most of them from a politically unstable area that this war could make more unstable.
We need to kick that dependency, and we can do it. We showed our ability in the many ways this nation found to save energy after the oil-price run-ups of the 1970s. America will stay dependent on foreign oil, however, until our national leaders put into effect a comprehensive energy policy that changes our focus from waste to conservation.
In his State of the Union address last month, President Bush promised "a comprehensive energy strategy that calls for energy conservation and efficiency, increased development and greater use of alternative fuels."
Details have begun coming out, and the Bush plan says little about conservation and efficiency. Emphasis is on production - even though America doesn't have access to enough oil reserves to make much of a dent against imports. One Energy Department researcher has suggested that the White House seems to think that "real men dam rivers and build giant nuke plants - they don't save energy."
This is an echo of the hands-off energy approach of the 1980s. It was formed by President Reagan, whose most memorable remark on the topic was: "Conservation means we will all be colder in the winter and hotter in the summer."
Many may have forgotten what conservation really means, but the nation learned a lot about it after the oil cartel began flexing its muscles in 1973. Automobiles shrank in size. The benefits of insulation were rediscovered. Industry discovered more efficient ways to operate. America squeezed more productivity from a gallon of gasoline or a kilowatt of electricity.
Japan, more farsighted and determined, was outdoing us. Today its economy gets almost twice as much production per unit of energy as in 1973. To warm their homes and buildings, and to power their vehicles and appliances, the Japanese use about 30 percent less energy per person than do Americans.
For that, no one thinks of the Japanese as any less potent economically. During the 1980s, they continued to gain efficiency while we, lulled by falling oil prices, lapsed back into profligate ways. Our energy waste is most evident in transportation, which burns up about two-thirds of the oil we consume.
Presidential advisers would like to let the free market dictate energy prices. Fine - if those prices reflect real costs, not just in work done but also in damage to the environment and health, use of land for highways, diversion of other resources and military protection of oil supplies.
Motor-vehicle use is subsidized in many ways, which is one reason that mass transit has fallen into decay and disuse. A 50-cent-per-gallon boost in the gasoline tax would help revive use of buses and trains, as well as contribute to cleaner air and greater motor-vehicle efficiency.
A comprehensive, cohesive energy policy needs more than a gas-tax increase. It needs more funds for research and development of alternative fuels, and better use of the energy we have. Our ample coal reserves can be put to better use, and there is a place as well for safe nuclear power.
But putting all this into effect calls for politicians willing to use their position, influence and popularity in a cause that may not, at first, be wildly popular. It requires, in a word, leaders. Let them show how brave they truly are.
by CNB