Mean Green

When the Founding Fathers of America declared its independence, they could not have imagined that, 232 years later, the United States would be so dependent on foreign countries before oil gushed from a well in Titusville, marking the beginning of the global oil economy.

For how long will America depend on foreign countries for oil?

 The US is literally sitting on a massive energy source this is because one quarter of the world’s coal reserves are located within the nation’s borders.

The US generated 3,940 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in 2004, with more than half of the electricity coming from coal-fired power stations.

President Obama is not even the first president to promise that America will not rely anymore on countries of the Middle East to get oil. President George W Bush said the US was “addicted to oil” which threatens to undermine future economic growth, in one of his state of the union address.

Former President Bush said “I hope to move beyond a petroleum-based economy, and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past”.

While president barrack Obama said, “The days of Washington dragging its heels are over and it will be my Administration’s policy to reverse our dependence on foreign oil while building a new energy economy that will create millions of jobs.”

In a move seen to bring a ray of hope to Americans on the oil issue, Speaking from the White House, the President on Monday announced that he was directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider an application by California and 13 other states to set stricter limits on greenhouse-gas emissions from cars and trucks, opening the way for tighter fuel efficiency standards nationwide.

Obama has an ambition of directing the Department of Transportation to issue guidelines that will ensure the U.S. auto fleet reaches an average fuel economy of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 at the latest; therefore, the directives signal Obama’s willingness to take on America’s disastrous auto sector, which is bleeding money even as it contributes heavily to climate change and the country’s addiction to foreign oil.

What America should do to get its oil?

- The government must first become independent of oil. It means giving drivers a choice between oil and other fuels.

- Ending oil dependence will require political leadership; the changes required to end oil dependence are far-reaching. Many current proposals are far too small. For the big change needed to solve this problem, presidential leadership is essential.

-  A keen analysis of the various policy and technology alternatives; plug-In-Cars, Biofuels, Fuel Efficiency, Coal, have effectively no impact on the transportation fleet in the short or immediate term unless more electric vehicles are invented.

Although the White House sees ethanol meeting up to 30% of the nation’s fuel use, it admits that it will take around 15 years to switch the nation’s cars to new technologies.

 The forecast of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that this figure will exceed 5,840TWh by 2030, with coal still being the dominant player. But coal is the most polluting of all fossil fuels.

 To tackle the environmental impact of burning coal, the president has earmarked a further $281m (£158m) for research into clean coal technology. With all these in mind it remains to be seen whether America will find its own oil.