Real Solutions on Oil Costs, Drilling and Global Warming
Americans have repeatedly shown how innovative they can be. When we commit our minds and resources to real goals and solutions, history shows we can accomplish virtually anything.
In 1776, we declared our independence, fighting the world’s largest empire eight years to make it a reality. We defeated fascism in WWII and put a man on the moon, thereby proving ourselves both courageous and resourceful. America has also boldly confronted moral challenges, ending slavery in a bitter civil war, while endeavoring to expand basic civil rights and protect our precious religious freedoms.
Today, we face another challenge deserving of an ambitious, practical, American-style solution. Once again, aided by a collective spirit, we are called to higher purposes because reality demands we find a better way to power our nation. A clean array of technologies that answer our growing energy demands, grow our economy, manage rising energy prices and solve the increasingly urgent crisis of global warming pollution are on the horizon.
We are now witnessing the dire impacts of reliance on fossil fuels as climate change impacts our world’s ecological balance endangering vulnerable people, species and future human generations. Every year, Americans pay unstable foreign regimes billions of dollars to satisfy our current oil addiction. We must recognize that with a finite supply and increasing demand—especially with rapid
economic expansion in Asia—we simply cannot bank on solutions that perpetuate our reliance on oil.
Americans consume more than we can possibly produce. In the U.S. we consume about 21 million barrels of oil per day which is 25 percent of the global production demand, but we have only 4 percent of the world’s population and 2 percent of the global oil supply. Some have suggested opening new coastal and protected areas to drilling, but this reckless course will not reduce gas prices or enhance energy security. Instead our first practical and moral impulse should be to become more innovative and efficient.
Clearly we must immediately find and deploy more practical solutions without risking environmental damage to our beautiful coastlines or deepening our dependence on oil. By making the right choices now, Congress can put us on the path to energy independence and put America back to work building a clean energy economy with jobs that cannot be outsourced, thereby reducing the oil-centered chokehold on our economy.
Congress should immediately hold businesses accountable for their global warming pollution by instituting cap and trade policies that compensate for the full costs of fossil fuel production. This would drive investment into clean energy technologies thereby creating a more diverse energy portfolio and beginning an exceptionally wise investment in America’s future.
America must expand energy efficiency technology for vehicles, electrical components and buildings to dramatically reduce our country’s energy demand. Even if
we ignore moral and aesthetic losses, including the potential environmental damage of more drilling, we must recognize that we can save far more through efficiency than from drilling.
These energy solutions will create thousands of new jobs. A recent report by the University of Massachusetts — Amherst shows that tens of thousands of workers in Ohio already are trained in industries that are key to a clean energy economy and to cutting global warming pollution. For example, in Ohio, there are more than 551,000 jobs that could see job growth or wage increases by putting global warming solutions to work.
In fact, renewable energy and energy efficiency industries generated 8.5 million jobs and nearly $1 trillion in revenue in the U.S. in 2006. According to the American Solar Energy Society, with appropriate policies, these sectors could generate up to 40 million jobs and $4.5 trillion in revenue in America by 2030.
After decades of oil addiction, positive change will not be easy but it must be done. Instead of embracing inadequate but politically convenient solutions, America must commit to overcoming what is certainly the biggest challenge of our generation. All of God’s creatures face uncertainty because of irrefutable climate change, so it is time for everyone to again summon the collective will and chart a healthy and sustainable energy future.
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Ohio Interfaith Power and Light (OhIPL) was founded in 2007 as an affiliate of The Regeneration Project’s national Interfaith Power and Light campaign. OhIPL’s mission is to voice a religious response to climate change and to promote energy conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. OhIPL focuses on tangible results in religious communities—putting faith into action. For more information, visit http://ohipl.blogspot.com.