Washington – When we talk about threats to our national security, al-Qaida and the "Axis of Evil" often head the list. Few people talk about the danger associated with SUVs and four-seater pickups. While calling those vehicles the "axles of evil" might be too much, there's no question that Americans' love affair with low-mileage cars and trucks has increased our dependence on foreign oil.
And that, in turn, poses a huge threat to the security of the homeland.
Tom Ridge, the director of the Office of Homeland Security, didn't bring up Americans' fascination with gas-guzzling vehicles in his speech last week to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He didn't mention the fact that last year, SUVs and pickups outsold automobiles for the first time. He didn't point out the absurdity of selling Humvees – originally built to transport troops in war zones – to executives who wage their daily battles over lane position in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Instead, Ridge stuck to the platitudes that have passed for policy since his office was created. He spoke of border control, increased funding for "first responders" (such as firefighters and paramedics), better planning and coordination among government agencies. He never went near the issue of petroleum consumption.
One of the central failings of the Bush administration is its unwillingness to wean the country from its addiction to petroleum. President Bush refused to support legislation to require greater fuel efficiency from new vehicles, and he is unlikely to ever do so. Bush's history as a Texas oil man has rendered him constitutionally incapable of seeing the consumption of petroleum as a problem.
Yet it is not difficult to connect those dots. The United States maintains a close alliance with the unsavory House of Saud – which continues to fund schools that teach Islamist extremism and anti-Semitism – because we need Saudi oil. Just in the last few weeks, oil prices have soared as the tension between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors has flared into outright war.
The first Bush administration missed an opportunity to cut back oil consumption after the Persian Gulf War, a conflict we fought to liberate Kuwait's oil wells and pipelines from Saddam's control. But former President Bush was never willing to concede that fact. Nor was he willing to point out that American soldiers might have to return to the region if we didn't curb our appetite for petroleum.
Since then, U.S. oil consumption has only grown with the increasing popularity of Chevy Trailblazers, Ford Excursions and Dodge Ram pickups. While Americans constitute only 4.5 percent of the world's population, we consume 26 percent of its petroleum.
The president's answer to America's dependence on foreign oil is to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, even though that environmentally damaging strategy would render precious little in new reserves. According to a recent report from the Bush-led Energy Department, the United States will have to import 62 percent of its oil by 2020 if we don't drill in ANWR. If we do drill, we will have to import 60 percent.
Of course, if he serves two terms as president, George W. would be leaving office just about the time the ANWR oil wells started pumping. And by then, it would be up to some other president to explain why, even after wrecking the wildlife refuge, we were still addicted to foreign oil, and why we still had to prop up foreign kings and dictators to keep the oil flowing from overseas.
And maybe – just maybe – that new president would get serious about energy policy.
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