Now we begin to step gingerly from raw openness to action… and posturing. We need to be careful about replacing one kind of fundamentalism with another. The issues are complex, and there is an opportunity to engage them in their full complexity.
This from NRDC president John H. Adams:
As Americans, we must now join together in shaping a strong response
to terrorism. For NRDC that means advocating policies that will
immediately begin reducing our nation’s dependence on oil, whether
imported or domestic. **That is the single most important thing that
we, as environmentalists, can do to ensure America’s national security
and environmental security.**
America’s unchecked consumption of oil has become a national Achilles
heel. It constrains our military options in the face of terror. It
leaves our economy dangerously vulnerable to price shocks. It invites
environmental degradation, ecological disasters, and potentially
catastrophic climate change.
Don’t be surprised in the days ahead to hear some in Washington call
for a massive increase in domestic oil drilling in order to achieve
national security. They ignore one crucial fact: our nation simply
doesn’t have enough oil reserves to drill our way to self-sufficiency
or to affect oil prices, which are set on the world market. We control
only 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves — a mere drop in the
bucket — but we consume a staggering 25 percent of the world’s oil
supply.
Even if we developed every potential oil deposit in America –
including the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, Greater Yellowstone, the
California coast and other endangered wildlands — we’d still be
importing oil, still be paying worldwide prices for domestic oil, and
still be leaving ourselves vulnerable to supply disruptions.
Is there an alternative? Yes. We can reduce our out-of-control
appetite for fossil fuels. We can rely on smarter and cleaner ways to
power our economy. For 30 years, NRDC has been proving that energy
efficiency and alternative energy technologies can save billions of
barrels of oil, while benefiting our health, our pocketbooks and our
environment.
I want you to know that, in the months to come, NRDC will be a leading
advocate for an energy future that reduces this dangerous addiction to
oil and increases our reliance on cleaner alternatives spawned by
American ingenuity. That is our very best hope — our only hope –
for getting us on a self-reliant energy path toward lasting national
and environmental security.
