'We've got to change the game' on oil use

Requiring that every vehicle sold in America is capable of running on ethanol, methanol or some combination with gasoline is the $100-a-vehicle fix that will cut our $600 billion annual foreign oil tab more quickly, according to a growing coalition of national security hawks, energy-independence advocates and environmentalists.

The future is in vehicles powered by homegrown fuels and batteries.

"OPEC [the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries] will have enough money to take over the Fortune 500 within six years," said nuclear scientist Robert Zubrin, author and a founder of www.SetAmericaFree.org. "The enemy hand is getting stronger.

"To say, 'Drill here, drill now' doesn't impress because [America] has very limited oil resources. We've got to change the game."

Zubrin, 56, recent author of "Energy Victory," notes that this year we'll spend about 120 percent of our military budget on oil from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran and other adversaries.

"We're funding the other side more than our side," he told scientists and business people in Minneapolis on Monday attending a next-generation biofuels conference sponsored by BBI International and Biomass Magazine. "OPEC will clear $1.5 trillion in net export profits this year. It all amounts to a huge tax on the U.S."

Saudi Arabia, with a family-run dictatorship that subsidizes its clerics to preach a virulent form of Islam, is the biggest culprit, also amassing a $1 trillion fund to buy Western companies. They long have counted on the United States to police the Persian Gulf, as our addiction to foreign oil grew from one-third of consumption in 1975 to two-thirds.

Although, gallon per gallon, they contain only 60 to 80 percent of the energy of oil, they will get cheaper and cheaper to produce as technological innovations and other measures drive down costs.

The key is pending legislation mandating that all new vehicles be equipped to use any fuel, he said.

David Morris, vice president of the Minneapolis-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance (www.ILSR.org) has been an adviser to farmer groups, rural communities and several presidential administrations.

Next year's arrival of plug-in hybrid vehicles that will travel up to 50 miles before engaging small fuel tanks as the battery recharges, eventually should drive marked cuts in gasoline consumption, particularly when combined with biofuels.

The ripple effect

Electricity is rapidly becoming the competitor to biofuels in terms of the next-generation transportation fuel," he said. "Electricity has an advantage in that virtually no oil is used in its generation. In biofuels, 1 gallon of oil inputs produces about 10 gallons of ethanol since the major input for growing and processing biofuels is natural gas, not oil.

"Electrified vehicles with biofueled backup engines is an excellent strategy, and the renewable electric should agree on this and work in concert. Mandating flexible-fuel vehicles is a 'gimme' since it costs only $100 a car and requires very little changeover in car plants. We are going to give $25 billion in loans to car companies to convert and upgrade their plants, so this should be a part of that."

The United States consumes about 140 billion gallons of oil annually at growing economic and environmental cost. We use about 25 percent of the world's total, but we have less than 5 percent of world reserves.

The tripling of oil prices since 2001 and the devastating war in Iraq, at a cost of thousands of lives and more than $500 billion in U.S. money, have taught volumes about oil imports, Middle East dependency and the limits of military power.

Federal legislation passed last year sets a goal of 35 billion gallons of fuel from renewable sources such as ethanol by 2022. We're at 5 percent heading toward 10 percent of fuel coming from ethanol.

We saw the pain of $4.25 per gallon this summer. Moreover, by some estimates, we lose 27,000 jobs for every billion dollars of additional oil imports.

The more we substitute biofuels and batteries for oil, the stronger our economy and national security. This week's conference in Minneapolis (www.advancedbiofuelsworkshop.com) is another step on the pathway to commercialization of a more-economical, cleaner-energy future.