12 Steps to Get U.S. Off Oil
Download the full version of “A 12-Step Program to Break America’s Oil Addiction” as a pdf.
This op-ed by RAN’s Mike Brune appeared in the Madison (WI) Capital-Times.
A 12-Step Program to Break America’s Oil Addiction
by Michael Brune, Rainforest Action Network
Our President almost came clean in his State of the Union Speech on Tuesday night when he finally admitted that “America is addicted to oil”. Two years ago, deep in the Amazon jungle, I heard a similar analysis from a leader of the Kichwa Nation, an indigenous community in southern Ecuador. “Our people will never be free as long as your country drinks oil like it is water,” she told me. “Until you stop, we will never truly be free.” She was speaking of how oil exploitation threatened the traditional lifestyle of the native community, but she may have been speaking of America itself: our oil addiction threatens our national security, our environmental health, and our way of life.
It is true that our leaders are exhibiting the classic signs of an addiction – denial, aggression, avoidance, blaming others – and as a country we are falling far short of reaching our full potential. America is a country that liberated Europe from Nazi fascism, invented rock and roll, put a man on the moon, and mapped the human genome, yet our stubborn dependence on oil erodes bedrock American values. For it, we will go to war, support unstable and undemocratic regimes, destabilize our climate, decimate our forests and parks, threaten the health of our children, and weaken our economy.
The President admitted to a national problem, but stopped well short of committing our country to a full recovery program. We already have the technology. What we desperately need is the courage to act now. Our leaders – government and corporate – have demonstrated a clear lack of leadership and political will to meet this challenge. It is time for nothing short of a national intervention, and a 12-step program to break America’s oil addiction. Here’s how it works:
Step one – Let’s admit that we have a problem, and commit deeply and truthfully to a national recovery program to break our oil addiction. Our country, and the world, deserves better. Transitioning to a clean energy economy will create millions of clean jobs; clean our air; protect our water supplies, our forests, and our climate; and will help to build a safer and more secure world for us all. But breaking our addiction requires humility and an unwavering commitment to change at every level of society. No one gets a free ride anymore, especially the world’s richest energy companies.
Step two –Separate Oil and State. Every year, oil companies continue to “invest” millions of dollars in political candidates at every level of the U.S. government. In turn, elected officials dole out more than $20 billion a year to prop up fossil fuel projects internationally.
One of the first steps to ending our collective addiction to oil is to reduce the oil industry’s influence over public governance, and to eliminate government handouts for dirty oil.
Step three through six – Jump-start Detroit and redesign American mobility. The transportation sector accounts for more than two-thirds of all oil consumption in the U.S.
Our passenger train system scrounges for funding in Washington while one out of every seven barrels of oil in the world is consumed on America’s highways alone. Led by Ford Motor Company, the American automobile industry is driving in reverse. The average Ford vehicle gets worse gas mileage than the Model T did almost one hundred years ago.
Thomas Friedman is right – the stability and very existence of the American automotive industry depends upon American automakers building affordable, fuel-efficient cars that all patriotic Americans can support. Pioneering engineers have already built Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) and new companies are inventing super-efficient biofuels made from agricultural waste with no help from Detroit or Washington.
Steps seven and eight – Start a rooftop revolution and green the grid. California is enacting regulations to build one million homes with rooftop solar power, generating 3000 megawatts of power. Studies show that solar energy supports up to ten times more jobs than dirty fossil fuel energy. A green grid powered by the wind and the sun can recharge car batteries and help us kick our transportation oil habit.
Steps nine and ten– Wean to Green and Fund the Future. Simply put, follow the money. Capital investment from the world’s largest banks is the fuel in the engine, so to speak, of the oil-based economy. Through their investment decisions, large banks can either help to keep us hooked on oil, or rapidly steer us towards a clean energy future. Multinational private banks must publish full accounting for their contributions to climate change – and commit to reduce their environmental footprint — or they will continue to be part of the problem, not part of the solution. Some banks, including Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs, are leading the way, proving that it is indeed possible to do well by doing good.
Step eleven – Adopt a “Low-Carb” Energy Diet – Any comprehensive strategy to break our oil addiction must include aggressive measures to reduce energy consumption. A low-carbon energy diet will reduce energy costs and increase competitiveness for American businesses, lower emissions, and produce clean jobs for workers. Efficiency improvements in the last thirty years have doubled the amount of work we get from each barrel of oil. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, current proven technologies can double oil efficiency again, for less money than would be required to buy the oil we save.
Step twelve – vote. Could it be any clearer that we need responsible and visionary leaders at all levels of government?
Like a smoker who says he’s going to quit someday even as he lights up another cigarette, the President offered little hope that he would actually break our country’s oil addiction.
For a country that uses enough oil to fill a football field 2500 ft tall every day, it will take a lot more than a speech and a few research dollars to set us free from oil. Freedom from oil will help our nation to create clean jobs, protect forests, make our foreign policy more just and more effective, and help to stabilize our climate. Let’s get to work.
20 Responses to “12 Steps to Get U.S. Off Oil”
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February 7th, 2006 at 6:26 pm
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February 8th, 2006 at 10:32 am
I am teaching a class at Rice University for non-science majors. I picked up your article and adapted it slightly for them, as we are talking about air pollution and energy. Thanks! it was just what I needed!
Berma Kinsey
February 16th, 2006 at 1:28 am
I cant believe that the volume of oil use in this country is really 2500 feet by one football field. There isnt a made made structure even close to that tall, making this unfathomable to imagine
March 7th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
GREAT!! One thing I would add to the green revolution part is a local food revolution. One important, but often forgetten, way to create energy independence is to address food security. All across America, our food is trucked thousands of miles in gas-guzzling semi trucks. This means less fresh produce and more heavily processed, nutritionally-deficient food in our diets. This problem is especially noticeable in poor inner-cities and rural areas where very little fresh and healthy produce is available and organic is almost non-existent. Growing more local food is already happening with very little help from Washingon through CSA’s (community supported agriculture) and farmers markets; as well as community, urban and rooftop gardens. Organic, locally-grown food uses less fossil fuel because it does not need to be transported across the country and does not rely on fertilizers and pesticides (which are made from fossil fuels). Plus, it supports the local economy and it tastes so much better!
April 22nd, 2006 at 4:30 am
Dear Sirs,Dear Friends! I am Chairman of NGO Svetlost/means Lightness/ from Serbia.Our mission is to promote well being of children and youth in need through effection apllication of human and financial resources.We olso want to protect our environmental/now is very bad situation in Serbia with slides and floods.We have much to work but we have no budget.Without support we can not operate,can not make actions.One modest donation would enable us to continue our work and we would be very thankful if You help us.Recomend us to Your partners,to Your friends,visit our web site http://www.svetlost.org to see who we are.Thank You for reading my letter,best wishes to all You ,Sincerely Chairman Mrs.Dragica Kejic
May 3rd, 2006 at 8:58 am
Array
May 19th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
Wow, you people seem to step right out of an Ayn Rand novel. I’m always amazed by the similarities in language used by communists…er I mean progressive environmentalists.
May 30th, 2006 at 11:43 pm
Well I wouldn’t say communists. Communists wouldn’t be very big on reforming business as much as they would just try to regulate it. And environmentalists is kinda a weak term, no? I mean aren’t we all environmentalists? Its kinda like being in favor of kids…who can honestly say they hate children and want them to suffer? Who can say that the environment is useless and should be used and abused until its gone? I gather the person who answers “Me!” to the first question, probably answers “Me!” to the second question as well which should give you an idea of how lucid they are.
Great work guys, keep it up.
May 30th, 2006 at 11:46 pm
Mike,
Excellent piece. I really think this is a key solution to our oil addiction. I think there has to be many solutions at once…there is no silver bullet. We can’t just go off and make ethanol until the cows come home, or build 500K new hydrogen cars and buses complete with fueling stations and H2 conversion stations. Your plan lays out all different types of solutions and that’s its strength. I’ll be sharing this with my Sustainable Development class next semester.
Thanks for the great work!
May 30th, 2006 at 11:50 pm
I agree. Awesome ideas and nice to have it framed in one place. But where’s the action? I think everyone agrees in principle but the key to all this is actually implementing it. We need some direction on that folks! I think we all KNOW what needs to be done and would rather have someone start the process instead of just more brainstorming and op-eds.
June 1st, 2006 at 10:42 am
If Brazil can run on ethanol, why can’t the rest of the world? The alternatives to oil alrady exist…Up until WW2, most cars could be run on either alcohol or gazoline. Why are auto manufacturers recalling and destroying leased electric vehicles in California? The answer to all this is simple: GREED and the complete control of government by big business, which in the case of oil runs contrary to public interest. This is not a matter of a republican versus a democrat agenda: this is basic common sense versus a kind a madness which is becoming criminal in the sence that it sacrifices the natural world and the future generations, and causes war and global inequity. The action? simple: reclaim ownership of your government, wresle it away from the tight grip of corporate capitalism run amok, and refuse being labelled a radical simply because you want to be represented in Washington! The radicals here are not those who want to get away from an unnecessary dependance on oil, but the oil industry and the political puppets who force their policy of profits AT ANY COST on the public and the world!
June 1st, 2006 at 7:02 pm
We can easily cut our oil demand. There are several companies around the world and the U.S. that turn municipal garbage into energy. SenreQ, which can be found at http://www.senreq.com is just one of these companies. They are pollution free. There is no combustion! Check them out. Landfills pollute. Garbage is much too valuable to bury!
June 12th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
We have to try to reduce our “consumption” and work toward an alternate fuel supply. They cannot start digging for oil in the Artic!! We are no longer living in the America that we all remember, as much destruction is afoot.
June 12th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Please read the Maine Green Independent Party Platform, particularly the Energy plank. http://www.mainegreens.org. This is a by=product of much think tanking, etc.
June 13th, 2006 at 6:19 am
Many years ago I wrote a letter to the mayor of Los Angeles suggesting that air pollution could be reduced by converting to electric cars which could be powered by a power line with a flexible retractable rod pickup passed through a slot in the main roads (similar to the electric trams which were common in England). There would not be rail tracks, however, thus more closely resembling the trolley buses used in England.
Such cars would have rechargeable batteries powerful enough to store up electric power for several hours of use independently of any other energy source. The batteries would be recharged by:
1. The main road pickup.
2. A rapid recharger at home.
3. At rapid recharging stations, which would be located at the site
of service stations. The batteries would be used for all roads
not supplied with a power rod pickup.
The source of power would be the general electric power, supplemented, if necessary, by additional sub stations.
I received no reply to my letter.
Perhaps, in today’s environment, this would not sound like such a crazy idea, and the general electric power, itself, would be generated by wind, solar and, perhaps, tidal power.
Incidental benefits would be considerable savings on repairs by virtue the much simpler mechanism of electric powered engines.
How about a pilot study?
I would appreciate your thoughts on this suggestion.
Sincerely,
Ian Campbell Cree, MB(Hons.),MS,FRCS(Eng. & C.),FACS,LRCP.
June 13th, 2006 at 6:41 am
The oil companies and electrial companies are both holding out on its customers because over my many years I have seen and heard of both enties buying new and better products that would have saved us millions and saved our world alot of problems..they paid millions just to put them on the shelf, and threatened the inventors with all kinds of threats if they used thier own inventions..just so that they could make MORE money for thier pockets..
July 19th, 2006 at 8:57 am
I am very impressed with the twelve step program. It’s about time someone has taken a step in the right direction. If only our political leaders would follow your lead. It would appear that dissolving the partnership of oil and state has to be the first step in perserving our earth.
July 25th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
Thank you for creating a good plan which addesses one of the world’s most serious problems, namely how to make the world (especially the USA) more energy efficient. The USA, in fact, should be leading the charge but is not, for many of the reasons you pointed out here. However, for steps like number two, how exactly would that work? Make legislation that would make oil companies campaign contributions illegal? Seems right now Congress can’t seem to muster the strength to make any form of monetary contribution illegal. Interesting, but how would it gone done, really?
April 14th, 2008 at 6:34 am
Bush said: “We need to get off oil”
So, lets get off oil
Algae: The New Oil
http://www.nationalalgaeassociation.com
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:32 pm
[...] and read other opinions about offshore and arctic oil exploration in the US here. You can also takepart with these 12 steps to help curb our addition to [...]