Most Energy Solutions Will Take Time

By Brian Lindholm

In the June 16 and 17 commentary pages, we saw two commentaries that complained about high oil and gasoline prices and ruled out increased domestic drilling as part of the solution. (“Houston, we have an oil problem,” June 16 and “More drilling won’t help,” June 17 commentary). Both articles used some rather strange arguments to make their point.

In the first, Steve Huff seems to expect the oil companies to spend their profits on non-oil energy technologies such as solar, electric, bio-diesel and other such things. Why would they do this? Oil companies don’t know how to grow crops, how to make high- efficiency solar cells, how to manufacture high-capacity batteries for cars or how to do any of these other things.

It’s kind of like expecting a 19th century horse breeder to invent an internal combustion engine that won’t leave horse droppings on the road. There’s no reason to expect them to be any good at it. Oil companies are basically good at only one thing: drilling for oil. Alternate energy technologies will almost certainly come from somewhere else.

And in the second commentary, Michael Abraham argues that even if we did open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts for drilling, the increase in supply wouldn’t be enough to meaningfully reduce oil prices on the world market.

He’s probably correct in this regard. However, he fails to mention that the United States imports nearly 12 million barrels of oil every day. At today’s prices ($140 a barrel), this means we’re sending nearly $1.6 billion every day to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Venezuela — countries that clearly don’t have the interests of U.S. citizens at heart.

Over the next year we will send over half a trillion dollars outside this country for oil, consuming nearly 4 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. This will not help our current economic woes.

Increasing domestic production won’t enable us to keep all our gas money inside this country, but it would let us keep at least some of it. I’d rather send my gas dollars to Alaska than Saudi Arabia any day.

What can be done about high oil and gasoline prices? In the short term, nothing. We’ll have to grit our teeth and bear it.

The recently passed changes to gas-mileage standards will help people in the future, but they can’t change the reality that there are millions of SUVs currently on the road. These fuel-hogging vehicles will eventually be retired, but it will be many years before the majority of Americans are driving cars that get better than 30 mpg, much less 40 mpg.

Increased drilling off U.S. coasts and in the ANWR? Same problem. It’ll be years before production can be ramped up. And per Abraham’s argument, it may not move prices down much anyway. It may just help keep our gas dollars in this country.

Alternate energy solutions such as hydrogen fuel cells or high- capacity batteries for electric-only cars will take years to implement and make commercially feasible. Increased public transportation? Buses are cheap but limited in capability. Rails for higher-capacity trains take years to put in place.

“Windfall” taxes on oil companies? This would make things worse. The oil companies would undoubtedly try to pass these extra costs on to their customers, boosting gas prices further. And when they couldn’t, they’d shut down their less profitable fields, causing us to import even more oil and send even more wealth out of this country.

Many of these long-term solutions are worth pursuing, all simultaneously and in parallel. But they will take time. Many years of time. However, if we don’t get started, the situation will never improve. Just think how much happier we’d be if fuel efficiency standards had been massively raised 10 years ago and we all now had cars that got 50 mpg. Or how much money would have stayed inside the U.S. if the ANWR had been opened for drilling 10 years ago.

What can the average consumer do in the meantime? Well, just the same things you’ve heard already: Drive conservatively. Keep your tires properly inflated and your engine in good shape. Combine multiple trips into a single trip. Carpool with friends. Consider staying home for vacation. Use the cruise control when you do travel.

And when you’re in the market for your next car, consider getting something smaller, with a hybrid engine or a diesel if you can afford it. And get a manual transmission. Using a stick shift instead of an automatic can reduce fuel consumption by nearly 15 percent.

Brian Lindholm

Lindholm is a mechanical engineer who lives in Salem.

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