Strengthening US in Face of Foreign Threats Requires Energy Independence: Expert
Curbing inflation, particularly fuel prices that have soared above $5 per gallon in a number of states, and bolstering America’s position in the face of geopolitical rivals such as China and Russia requires changes to domestic energy production, refining, and transportation, according to Kelly Sloan, a senior fellow in energy and environment at the Centennial Institute, a think tank affiliated with Colorado Christian University.
One of the weakest aspects of President Joe Biden’s fiscal policy, Sloan argued, has to do with the president’s approach to energy procurement and distribution. This has led to out-of-control fuel prices, he said.
“Of course, that translates directly to oil and gas production, and not just oil and gas production, but transportation and refining. We can drill all we want, but if we don’t have the infrastructure, the capacity to transport the product to a refinery and then refine it into something that you can put into fuel tanks, it won’t do,” he said.
No matter how much oil and gas the nation’s producers may churn out, the lack of adequate infrastructure will thwart any hopes of bringing prices down, Sloan said. He went on to describe a domestic infrastructure hampered severely by the failure to build a new refinery, or nuclear plant, in decades, and by intense pressures exerted by a powerful environmental lobby on existing refineries.
“You have a kind of cultural zeitgeist of manipulation by the environmental lobby. It has been pressuring a lot of the refinery owners to convert oil, and oil refineries, to biofuels or some other type of product. That has been keeping our product from getting on the market,” Sloan said.
Making the United States more efficient and competitive as an energy producer, supplier, and distributor will strengthen her hand immeasurably against powers such as Russia, Sloan argued. It would also help to encourage the energy independence of nations such as Poland. Sloan envisioned a future where the United States could help Poland and other powers achieve this goal by allocating part of its own streamlined and expanded energy supply to such friendly powers.
“The best economic weapon we have against Russia, for instance, right now would be to replace the oil and gas that Europe uses. And most of that has traditionally come from Russia. But, you know, Poland has actually spent the last five to eight years trying to wean themselves off Russian natural gas and finding other sources, and we really should be the source of that natural gas for them,” Sloan said.
Although the United States does not lack the resources to make such plans a reality, the liquified natural gas (LNG) and other facilities needed to transport the product to Europe are wanting, Sloan lamented. He advocated a “two-stroke approach” that should come into play, with expanded production and enhanced refining capabilities, facilitated by a laissez-faire approach on the part of the federal government.
“There’s not much the government has to do, except get out of the way. They can ease some of the regulatory burden on the energy companies, they can get out of the way of building new pipelines and then get out of the way of building [additional] new infrastructure,” Sloan said.
Such moves will drive down gas prices at home while strengthening America’s position globally, Sloan added. Under Sloan’s plan, the energy produced domestically would not go just to Europe, but conceivably also to Japan, which lacks the same resources and is not emphasizing nuclear energy at this juncture.
“They’re looking for natural gas from somewhere, and we have it to supply and should be doing that,” Sloan said.
Sloan sees the United States as a potential leader in global energy markets if it can continue to make improvements in certain areas.
“I think a lot of the world has always tended to underestimate the United States,” he added.
