US Energy Policy: Why the World Should Care

Despite current low oil prices, mankind faces one of its biggest challenges to date: a future in which worldwide oil supply will not keep pace with worldwide oil demand.

… The result will be periodic economic contractions of increasing severity. Each economic contraction will lead to sharply reduced oil demand (as we are experiencing today) and subsequently reduced short-term oil prices. Each economic recovery will see increasingly higher oil prices until economic prosperity will once again be cut off at the knees. In other words, the author believes the world is now on an economic yo-yo which is tightly dependent on oil supply/demand fundamentals. If the planet is indeed entering an era in which worldwide oil supply cannot keep up with worldwide demand, and if the world economy is indeed dependent on oil to function and grow, logically these two hypotheses taken together cannot bode well for future worldwide economic prosperity.

…Looking at these figures, one can come to some fairly logical conclusions:

The US consumes roughly 23.6% of all worldwide oil supply

In order to meaningfully reduce foreign oil consumption, the US must significantly reduce demand from its transportation sector.

Why should the rest of the world care about these facts and US energy policy in general? For exactly the same reasons that Americans should care: the economic, environmental, and national security problems which result as a consequence of US addiction to foreign oil. Let’s take a closer look at the implications each of these three issues has on the world as a whole.

International Business Times