Reason to Consider Renewable Energy: The US Dependence on Foreign Oil Empowers Our Enemies
In a recent post I mentioned that one of the central problems with our dependence on oil (of which we have very little domestically) is that our borrowing $1 billion per day to buy it from foreign governments empowers our enemies. In response, frequent commenter MarcoPolo writes:
Craig, I’m curious, what are those ‘enemy’ regimes you speak of?
I mean Chavez is a bit of a buffoon, and has no love for the US, but an active enemy? I am unaware that North Korea is oil rich. And since the US imports no oil from Iran, that leaves the four biggest US oil imports from Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Nigeria.
Yes, well I can see your point with Canada!
Allies, Craig, the US imports from allies!
In response, I would just say what (ex-CIA Director) James Woolsey told me when I spoke with him last year:
Craig, read Larry Diamond’s book if you haven’t already. If you look at the 22 countries that count on two-thirds or more of their national income from oil — it’s fair to say all 22 of those countries are autocratic kingdoms or dictatorships.
And I haven’t compared that list with Freedom House’s list of the forty, basically – those that Freedom House calls “Not Free.” There are about 120 democracies in the world, I mean not perfect, but nonetheless regular elections and another 20 countries like Bahrain that are reasonably well and decently governed, even though not democratically so. And then you’ve got 40 really bad guys. And I’m pretty sure that list of 22 in Larry Diamond’s book is virtually all from the list of 40 bad guys — or “Not Free,” in Freedom House’s terms.
So it’s really a pretty decisive set of statistics, I think, and then if you look at other numbers, set out in places like Mort Halprin’s book The Democracy Advantage, it’s pretty clear that basically democracies don’t fight each other. They occasionally get really pissed off, but they mainly choose up sides and argue about trade sanctions and stuff. It’s not impossible but it’s really hard, even going back into the 19th century, but certainly since 1945, finding democracies fighting each other. They just don’t.
So you’ve got oil locking some states that depend so heavily on it into autocracy and dictatorship and worse. And those are the folks who also fund the terrorists, who invade neighboring countries, etc. So there’s a large national security point here.
I guess what I’m saying is that a thriving oil market empowers the enemies of democracy, whether they are active and avowed enemies of the US or not.
