Technology Won't Solve America's Oil Addiction, Experts Say

President's State of the Union Speech ignores deeper problem of depleting oil supplies; real solution requires massive conservation, group says.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) February 2, 2006 -- America’s dependence on oil took center stage Tuesday in President Bush’s State of the Union address, in which he declared “America is addicted to oil,” but a growing number of experts now say that technology alone won’t wean the country from it's oil addiction. The root cause of our dependency, they say, is a more intractable problem -- the depletion of finite global oil resources -- and that any solution will require massive conservation efforts in addition to developing alternative energy sources.

In his speech, President Bush set a goal of replacing more than 75% of the nation’s Middle East oil imports, and proposed increased spending on ethanol and other alternative fuels. While laudable in principle, such efforts fall far short of addressing the enormity of the problem, says SF Informatics, a citizens group focused on energy issues. “Presidents have been talking about ending America’s dependence on foreign oil since the 1970s,” said Richard Katz of SF Informatics. “Yet we continue to grow ever more addicted. What the President didn’t tell us is that that the world has already consumed half of its conventional oil supplies and now faces the imminent peak and decline of production.”

Katz also points out that the United States consumes fully a quarter of the world’s oil yet has only 5% of the world’s population and less than 2% of remaining oil reserves. “Cutting our oil consumption must become a national priority or we will never end our dependency,” he says.

Congressman Roscoe Bartlett is one of just a handful of lawmakers who have recognized the grave risks posed by “peak oil,” the point when oil output begins an irreversible decline. Addressing shrinking supplies will take more than technology, he says. "Two words missing from the State of the Union were conservation and efficiency," Congressman Bartlett said in a statement. "U.S. oil production peaked in 1970. Despite price increases, government incentives for drilling, and advances in technology for exploration and drilling, U.S. oil production has continued to decline.”

Bartlett says that ending the dependency will require a combination of reducing consumption and developing alternative energy sources. “Unless we do both, it probably won't be possible to break America's addiction to oil and reduce the trend of increasing dependence upon oil imports from the Middle East," Bartlett said.

With evidence mounting that the world is nearing the oil peak, citizens groups such as SF Informatics, Global Public Media, Post Carbon Institute, the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) and others are calling for a broad-based campaign to promote awareness of the looming energy shortfall and to take practical steps to begin the transition to a sustainable, post-petroleum society.

One such effort is the release last October of a comprehensive energy information and educational tool -- an authoritative poster called The Oil Age -- created by SF Informatics in association with Global Public Media. The poster illuminates the history of oil production worldwide and displays the latest energy statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, BP Statistical Review and other industry sources.

Copies of The Oil Age poster can be purchased at www.oilposter.org. To date, over 1,100 posters have been donated to teachers worldwide. And thanks to Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, the poster has been distributed to every member of the U.S. Congress.

About SF Informatics

SF Informatics represents a group of concerned citizens committed to researching and communicating critical ecological and societal trends worldwide. For more information: davem @ oilposter.org. Poster ordering or donation information: www.oilposter.org.

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