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National NewsConservative News
Another Strategy For Fighting Terrorism
By Gary Palmer
Posted on: April 7, 2006
You may not have given much thought to it, but every time we fill our gas tanks we are contributing to the support of our enemies.
In an article in the March 2006 issue of The American Enterprise magazine entitled An Energy Revolution, Dr. Robert Zubrin wrote that, "Using portions of the hundreds of billions of petrodollars they are annually draining from our economy, Middle Easterners have established training centers for terrorists, paid bounties to the families of suicide bombers, and funded the purchase of weapons and explosives."
Zubrin continued, "It was men energized by oil-revenue resources who killed 3,000 American civilians on September 11, 2001, and who have continued to kill large numbers of Westerners in Iraq and elsewhere. We are thus subsidizing acts of war against ourselves."
At current rates of consumption, the United States uses an average of 380 million gallons of gasoline a day, with the vast majority of it derived from oil imported from countries that don't like us. Not only are we subsidizing current terrorists operations against us, the Iranian effort to develop nuclear weapons is also being paid for with oil revenues from the U.S. and Europe.
Based on these obvious facts, Zubrin's article needs broader public circulation and discussion, especially his recommendations for strategically ending our dependence on oil supplied by countries that are hostile toward us.
At the moment, Middle Eastern and Arab nations have the U.S. and the rest of the world over their oil barrels. Even though U.S. leaders know that oil dollars are the life blood of the terrorist groups, the U.S. cannot take military action against the countries that are funding terrorism because of the potential for a massive disruption of the oil supply to the rest of the world. With their rapidly expanding economies, China and India are already major competitors for Middle East oil so it is unlikely that the U.S. would take any action that would put their economies at risk.
Moreover, the best solution is not a military one, but a domestic strategy that allows us to meet our energy requirements within our own borders. That solution, according to Zubrin, is to get the U.S. off the oil standard and on an alcohol standard, either ethanol or methanol.
With gasoline prices well over $2 per gallon, Zubrin thinks that now is the time to make the switch. He believes that Congress should pass a law mandating that all new cars sold in the United States be flexible-fuel vehicles (FFVs) that are capable of burning any combination of gasoline and alcohol.
This is not a pie in the sky idea.
American automakers already turn out two dozen models of standard cars with a flex-fuel option that adds from $100 to $800 to the price of the vehicles. In addition, race cars are fueled with methanol which is far less flammable than gasoline.
In addition, in 2003 the Brazilian government mandated a transfer to FFVs. As a result, the Brazilian divisions of Ford, General Motors, Fiat, Renault, and Volkswagen produced FFV models that represented 60 percent of new vehicle sales in 2004. According to Zubrin's article, by 2007 it is estimated that 80 percent of all new vehicles sold will be FFVs.
The United States can make the transfer to FFVs as well and Dr. Zubrin cites two developments that can make the rapid transfer possible. One factor is that the rise in gasoline prices now makes alcohol fuels cheaper than gasoline. While alcohol fuels get fewer miles per gallon, because they are less expensive, drivers would be getting about the same miles per dollar at current prices and even better if oil prices continue to increase.
The other factor is improving technology. The Netherlands Research Institute for Road Vehicles has developed a sensor capable of continuously measuring the alcohol content in mixed fuel to regulate the mix for the engine.
The problem with converting to FFVs is primarily in the availability of mixed fuel to drivers. Until there is a major shift to FFVs, gas stations will be reluctant to add a flex-fuel pump. That is why it may be necessary to get Congress to act in much the same way that the Brazilians did, by passing a law that mandates FFVs.
In addition to allowing us to become energy independent, switching to FFVs will have an environmental benefit. Ethanol based fuels reduce air pollution and, because it is derived from plants which draw carbon dioxide out of the air, an increase in the cultivation of plants for ethanol production would act as a global cooling agent.
Methanol can be produced from a broader variety of plants as well as from natural gas and coal and it is cheaper than ethanol. Methanol can be economically produced from coal and coal is the United State's most prevalent energy source. The United States has enough coal reserves to power our entire economy for centuries.
As Zubrin points out in his article, switching to an alcohol standard and getting us off the oil standard is perhaps the best long term strategy that the U.S. can implement against Islamic terrorists. We cannot continue to allow ourselves to be looted by people that are determined to destroy us and are using our own money to do it.
Zubrin wrote, "We must take ourselves, and the rest of the world, off the petroleum standard. Only by doing this can we destroy the economic power of our enemies at the very foundations."
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