For National Security, We Must Expand Alternatives to Oil

"Our future is renewable energy"
from address given by US Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) to the Denver meeting of the World Affairs Council. Salazar is a Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Energy, and Veteran's Affairs

Today, with oil climbing toward $100 a barrel, we are witnessing one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history. Oil consumers - from the farmer in the San Luis Valley whose diesel bill will reach $10,000 this year to the driver in Denver who is paying $70 to fill the tank - are paying almost $5 billion more every day for oil than they did five years ago. Revenues for oil-producing states and oil companies - primarily oil companies controlled by foreign governments - will reach $2 trillion this year.

The massive transfer of oil wealth that is under way - and to which we contribute by importing 60 percent of our oil - is having dangerous effects on our national security and is eroding our influence in the world...

We deploy our Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines around the world so that commerce may proceed unharmed. But the mission, of course, is not free. It keeps our service members away from their families, and it costs the taxpayer billions of dollars.

How then do we secure the energy we need for our prosperity while protecting our national security? The question is not a new one.

Winston Churchill, in contemplating how to keep the British Navy supplied with Middle Eastern oil before World War I, came to this conclusion: "Safety and certainty in oil," he said, "lie in variety, and variety alone."

Churchill was right. American energy security demands that we broaden our list of suppliers of oil. But diversifying our supply also means that we must expand our supply of energy sources that can substitute for oil.

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