So are We Addicted To Oil?

Why Blog? I guess we all have an opinion and love to opine on issues we feel strongly about. And since a person like me is often festering in front of the computer screen dabbling in social media and e-mails I might as well be a little more constructive and vent on matters of the day. So my first "blog" topic is on energy use and the emotional rhetoric tied to it.

"Addition to Oil", "Dependency to Foreign Oil", you have heard the phrases ad nauseum. What does it mean and why are they used so often by politicians on both sides of the aisle, proponents of renewable energy, the press and the pro-global warming crowd among others. Both addiction and dependency or dependent are words that carry emotion with it. Let me explain. When we use the word addiction it constituents a negative. Addiction to alcohol, illicit drugs like meth and cocaine, pornography are examples.  You don't need them to live and get about your day. Over use can cause serious health and social issues even death. The use of word dependency or dependent isn't quite as negative nor is it a positive either. In the context with oil it is often used as...."reducing our dependence on Foreign Oil!" The later phrase has been used since the oil embargo of the 1970's. If you flip through old editions of National Geographic from the mid to late 1970's into the early '80's you will come across ads that talk about this very issue. For example in the April 1975 Nat Geo edition Exxon has a two page spread promoting the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Exxon concludes the ad with these words: "The Trans Alaska Pipeline System will help America become more self-sufficient and less dependent on foreign oil." In the April 1980 edition Standard oil has an ad promoting the process of turning oil shale into gasoline from deposits in Colorado and other western States, stating that we have more oil shale deposits than there is oil in the Middle East. The ad goes on to say "America can't afford to drag its feet any longer in developing its own supplies of energy. The increasing costs and uncertain supplies of foreign oil threaten our country." Standard Oil Ad, National Geographic April 1980. Back 30 years ago the United States imported roughly 30% of oil supplies. Today it is around 60%.

So are we addicted to oil? We use 20 million barrels a day so we must be right? The reality is no. Oil is not an addiction it is a necessity.  The use of the word addiction and to a lesser degree dependency is to create a negative emotion about oil and it's uses. An emotional guilt trip to try and convince you to use other alternatives, not that there are many options. How can a product like oil and it's by-products gasoline and diesel be an addiction when if the car you own has neither fuel in the tank or oil in the engine, it isn't going any where. It would be a dead stick in the middle of the drive way. The vehicles purpose is totally diminished. The point here is in order to sell the concept of ethanol, electric cars or LPG powered vehicles is to make oil and it's producers as the "evil" bloke on the block!" That we can do better for humanity and the environment by using less oil, more renewable options or other cleaner burning fuels. I don't have an issue with that sentence. What I do have an issue with is how the whole process is being sold to the public at large.