Oil Imports Threaten Our Security

By Rep. Mac Thornberry
Roll Call

Americans have always sought to control our own destiny. It is part of our heritage, and one reason we continue to be free and secure. But in one important area of our national security, we are turning our fate over to others.

The area is energy - specifically, our dependence on foreign sources of oil. No other nation consumes more oil than the United States. Oil heats our homes. It fuels our vehicles. It makes our lives a lot easier on the whole. Yet because we are importing more and more oil from abroad, we face a real and increasing danger in the event our supply is ever seriously disrupted, cut off or threatened.

One of the best assessments of the problems we face in this area comes

from the Web site of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (www.fe.doe.gov/spr/spr_bro.html). The reserve was authorized nearly 25 years ago in response to the Arab oil embargo of 1973. Run by the Department of Energy, it is our "Fort Knox" for oil - the place where we maintain a supply of oil in the event our imports are threatened.

Those who manage the Strategic Petroleum Reserve have one goal in mind - to preserve our energy security. And on their Web site, at least, they make it clear this goal is going to be a difficult thing to achieve.

"Each day," they write, "over 17.5 million barrels of petroleum are used throughout the U.S., principally as transportation fuels. The U.S. was once self-sufficient in petroleum, but this is no longer the case. In production since the 19th century, much of the U.S. oil resource base has been depleted, and crude oil production has declined over 25 percent since 1985. Although the U.S. has 3 percent of the world's proven reserves, it consumes approximately 28 percent of the daily world production.

"With increasing U.S. consumption, petroleum imports have likewise increased significantly. In 1994, the U.S. depended on imports to meet more than 50 percent of its petroleum requirements, and this dependence is expected to increase to almost 70 percent by the year 2010. With this level of import dependence, the U.S. is vulnerable to disruptions in foreign oil supplies.

"Two-thirds of the crude oil entering the world market is from the Middle East and Africa, regions that have been characterized by political and military instability in recent years. Although the U.S. currently imports most of its oil from countries in other regions, during an oil supply disruption, these supplies may be diverted to other purchasers. As a result, the U.S. is potentially at considerable risk from disruptions in Middle East and African oil supplies."

After reading this assessment, one thing should ring loud and clear: The U.S. may not be self-sufficient in the amount of oil we need to produce, but we shouldn't be self-destructive in the amount of oil we choose to import. Yet that is exactly what we are doing, and the result is threatening both our national and economic security.

From a basic military standpoint, the increase in oil imports has forced us to commit our troops - and tax dollars - to more places around the world. The Persian Gulf is the obvious example. Since the end of the Gulf War, which former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger called "a classic example of the danger we face because we are so dependent on [foreign] oil," military operations and crisis build-ups in the region have cost us more than $6.9 billion.

In the future, we could see similar troop deployments to other oil-rich regions of the globe. Retired Admiral T. Joseph Lopez, who oversaw all U.S. naval forces in Europe as well as the NATO Southern Command, was recently quoted as saying that "within the next decade, the Caspian and Black Sea area will become the next Persian Gulf, with the same potential for positive engagement as well as trouble."

In addition to the military implications, increasing the amount of oil we import from abroad has consequences for our economic security. According to the Independent Petroleum Association of America, oil imports cost our economy $60 billion each year, and constitute one of the largest components of our trade deficit. In terms of long-term costs, a 1993 study showed that the oil price shocks and supply manipulations by OPEC between 1972 and 1991 cost us about $4 trillion.

As our oil imports have increased, the amount of oil produced in the United States has plummeted. U.S. oil output now stands at 6.36 million barrels per day - the lowest level since 1954. With this drop in production has come a loss of jobs. More than 500,000 American jobs have been lost since the early 1980s. But it's not just oil and gas producers who are being hurt by rising oil imports. It's also the country as a whole, because we are losing much of our domestic production capability.

So what's the answer? Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions and no silver bullets that will miraculously cure us of the problems we face by rising imports. But there are several small steps that we could and should take that not only will strengthen our national security, but also will improve the economic security of the country and the nation's oil and gas producers. These steps include:

Providing Incentives to Increase Domestic Production. Due to low oil prices, many small, independent producers are finding it more expensive to drill for oil than to sell it. As a result, more and more marginal wells are being shut in. Alone, these wells produce fewer than three barrels of oil a day. Together, however, they produce 700 million barrels per year. The more we can do to keep producers from closing these wells, the stronger our national security will be. The reason? Every barrel of oil we produce here at home is one less barrel we buy from abroad.

Filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Capacity. Although the reserve is able to hold 750 million barrels of oil, it is currently holding only 563 million barrels. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson announced plans last month to put 28 million barrels back into the reserve that were lost to recent sales.

He should take it a step further and fill it up all the way. It not only makes economic sense from the standpoint that the federal government would be getting the oil while it is cheap, but it also makes sense from a strategic point of view because we would be increasing the amount of oil we could fall back on in the event our supply is disrupted or cut off.

Reining in Saddam Hussein's Ability to Flood the World with Cheap Oil. One of the great follies of our current policy toward Iraq is the fact that at a time when we are dropping more bombs on Saddam Hussein than any other country in the world, we are also buying more oil from him than any other country.

The oil is being sold under the United Nations' "oil for food" program. The program lets Saddam sell $5.26 billion worth of oil every six months. This essentially is no limit at all because of the low price of oil. In fact, over the past 14 months, Iraqi exports have increased from around 700,000 barrels a day to 2.3 million barrels. With evidence showing that food and medicine are failing to reach Iraqi people as intended and that Saddam is using the program as an economic weapon to flood the world with cheap oil, the President should - at a minimum - lower the caps on the amount of oil Iraq is permitted to sell.

These may be small steps, but they are steps that will strengthen our nation's security and help keep the destiny of America in our own hands.

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) is a member of the Armed Services Committee.