NATIONAL SECURITY

Why can't we concentrate all of our efforts on conservation to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil?       

Unfortunately, conservation will not solve our oil dependency on its own. Over the years, Congress has attempted to conserve our oil consumption in the transportation sector through Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standards. In 1975, Congress more than doubled the efficiency standard for passenger cars from 12.9 mpg in 1974 to 27.5 by 1985. The fuel economy for light duty trucks was increased to 22.2 mpg by 2007. Recently, the CAFE standard was bolstered again, to a 35 mpg for passenger cars by 2020. However, a conservation-based energy policy has limitations. Domestically, the quantity of cars on American roads is expected to grow significantly as a result of population growth, and other demographic and economic factors. Analysts have argued that the increase in demand for oil-caused by the increase in cars-would exceed the rate of conservation. As such, the current CAFE standards will only limit the expected growth in demand for oil in the U.S.-not end it. Internationally, the problem is more extreme as worldwide oil consumption is set to burst. From 2001 to 2006, global consumption increased by 11.4%. China and India alone are expected to double their demand for oil over the next 20 years in order to keep pace with their rapid economic growth. However, OPEC projects that it will increase its production by only 30 million barrels a day by 2030-far less than global demand is expected to rise. lug-in electric vehicles,"

Won't increasing domestic drilling solve this problem of oil dependence?

Increasing our supply of domestic oil will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but it will not end it. The Department of Energy estimate of the number of barrels in ANWR ranges anywhere from as little as 5.7 billion to as high as 16 billion. The U.S. currently consumes approximately 7.5 billion barrels of oil each year-5 billion of which are imported. Hypothetically, if the reserves in ANWR were to become available immediately, they would at best provide 2 years worth of oil consumption. However, immediate production is impossible. The economic relief that oil from ANWR could provide would be staggered over the course of a number of years, and thus minimized. As such, the Energy Information Administration estimates that ANWR exploration will likely only cut crude oil prices by 75 cents per barrel by 2025. In terms of the global market, U.S. domestic drilling will not reduce OPEC's ability to dictate oil prices. To date, the U.S. has approximately 30 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. By contrast, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, the UAE, and Kuwait have more than 700 billion barrels of oil. The U.S. does have about 22 billion barrels of oil available in its continental shelves. However, continental exploration is a prolonged and expensive process that, even long term, would not increase America's share in the global market-which would grow from 10 percent to 11 percent. Even if OPEC's global share stayed stagnant at 42%, they would still have a controlling interest in the market and the ability to manipulate prices at will. vehicles," like all electric drive vehicles, use electricity to move vehicle's wheels. Some, or all, of that electricity comes from the grid -- from "plugging in."