Quest for Energy Independence

Report Outline
The Energy Decade
Coping with Prices
The Energy Outlook
Special Focus

The Energy Decade

Steady Reliance on Petrolium Imports

Energy Independence. Ever since the Arab oil embargo of 1973–74, those two words have been the aim of American energy policy. In the 10 years that have followed, four presidents and six Congresses have taken varied — sometimes contradictory — approaches to freeing the United States from its dependence both on imported oil and on procurement of oil from unstable and occasionally unfriendly foreign countries. At the end of a decade, the question is: Are we any closer to energy independence today than when we started?

If one of the measures of independence is the ability to cut consumption, the United States has made significant gains. American energy consumption from all sources reached a peak in 1979 and has dropped steadily ever since. Conscious efforts to conserve by both individuals and industries account for much of this decrease in consumption. According to Alan Nogee, Energy Project Coordinator for Environmental Action, conservation has made the U. S. economy 20 percent more energy efficient since 1973. But no one knows for certain how long-lasting or deep this streak of conservation goes. A substantial portion of the drop in consumption is attributable to the worldwide recession that followed the 1979–80 oil price hikes. And energy consumption is expected to increase as the economy picks up. Falling oil prices may also stimulate more consumption. Conservation has left OPEC with a glut of oil and a “depressed” price of $29 a barrel.

Despite the overall drop in consumption, the nation is still vulnerable to another embargo or other disruption in its oil supply and that vulnerability is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Americans have cut their consumption of oil — from 18.85 million barrels a day (mbd) in 1978 to an estimated 15.18 mbd in 1983. But the nation still imports nearly one-third of its oil, only a little less than it imported in 1973. And on Dec. 16 former Energy Secretary James Schlesinger predicted that U.S. dependence on foreign oil will again rise above the 50 percent level during the 1990s.