For Immediate Release:
Stop Fueling the
Terrorists
(WASHINGTON, D.C.,
September 11, 2002) - The Bush administration must
urgently rethink its energy policy if it is to
succeed in the war on terrorism, former CIA
director James Woolsey said
today.
Speaking on the anniversary of the
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and
Pentagon at the independent energy and
environmental research center, Resources for the
Future (RFF), Woolsey called on the president to
reduce U.S. dependence on Middle East oil by:
- encouraging the use of more fuel-efficient
hybrid cars;
- generating ethanol from biomass or waste;
- beefing up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
to 1 billion barrels; and
- increasing Russian oil production by 50 per
cent.
“I have not been pleased with the president’s
energy policy, to put it mildly,” Woolsey said. “I
admire President Bush’s effort in the fight
against terror, but his energy policy goes against
what he is trying to accomplish in that
war.”
Woolsey said people in the Middle
East have some justification in thinking the
United States has but one interest in the region:
“They think we want to use it as a gas station,
that we have no interest in the people. They
perceive that America is in bed with their own
oppressive regimes and believe our lack of
willingness to stand up for human rights in their
countries is based on our thirst for
oil.”
While the terrorists of al Qaeda are
motivated by hatred of our freedoms and envy of
our success, Woolsey said oil wealth in the Middle
East is fueling terrorism. “They understand the
leverage they hold has a lot to do with our own
behavior, and we must start to understand that as
well.”
Woolsey, drawing on his extensive
experience in counter-terrorism and international
affairs, outlined a four-point domestic energy
plan as what he called “the oil component of the
U.S. war strategy.”
He said the United
States must undermine the tactical short-term
weapon possessed by Saudi Arabia, whose oil
reserve capacity of 3 billion barrels a day
functions as the “energy equivalent of a nuclear
weapon” that could destroy western economies.
Woolsey said the United States must take urgent
steps to increase our own Strategic Petroleum
Reserve to at least one billion barrels, and
encourage our allies to stockpile oil. “With
instant access to 2 billion barrels, we would take
away that Saudi weapon.”
He also called on
the Bush administration to take steps to double
Russian oil-producing capacity from its current
6.9 million barrels a day. This, he said, would
involve convincing Russia to privatize its
pipelines and ports. “For all the problems Russia
has in its move to democracy, it is far more
likely to develop into a reasonable democratic
country than Saudi Arabia,” he
said.
Critical of both the administration
and Congress for rejecting plans to tighten fuel
economy standards, Woolsey said the move to highly
fuel-efficient hybrid cars must be strongly
encouraged. “We have five-passenger hybrid cars in
the dealerships now. They get 50 miles per the
gallon (mpg) compared to the average SUV’s 10 to
15 mpg. There should be as many incentives as
possible to scrap older cars and move to
hybrids.”
Woolsey added that rather than
concentrate on fuel cells and other new
technologies that would not be available for some
time into the future, the urgency of the war on
terror requires solutions with existing
technologies that can be adopted now. “We have to
focus on what we have now, what technology we have
now, what can be incentivized now, what’s in
dealer showrooms now.”
Once such idea, he
said, was the use of biomass or waste with
genetically modified biocatalysts to produce
ethanol. Relying on biomass rather than corn to
produce ethanol would mean that cars — without
much adaptation — could be as much as 85 per cent
fueled by ethanol.
Contact:
Jonathan Halperin,
Director, Communications Planning &
Strategy,
(202) 328-5030, halperin@rff.org.