When Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 and Bush signed the bill into law, it seems the great minds in Washington were short-sighted in many ways, one being the DOD can not purchase Canadian oil from tar sands.
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The Act was supposed to prevent the United States from being dependent on middle east oil and being in the middle of political instability. Unfortunately, this Act does little to accomplish the stated goal and actually forces America to buy more oil from OPEC countries like Iran and Venezuela. These two top Democrats will have egg on their face trying to explain this to voters.
A little known provision of the bill, namely section 526, states: “SEC. 526. PROCUREMENT AND ACQUISITION OF ALTERNATIVE FUELS.
No Federal agency shall enter into a contract for procurement of an alternative or synthetic fuel, including a fuel produced from unconventional petroleum sources, for any mobility-related use, other than for research or testing, unless the contract specifies that the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with the
production and combustion of the fuel supplied under the contract must, on an ongoing basis, be less than or equal to such emissions from the equivalent conventional fuel produced from conventional petroleum sources.”
Translation: This bars the federal government from purchasing fuels whose life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions are greater than those from fuels produced from conventional petroleum sources. So, for example, the United States Government will no longer be able to purchase oil that was produced from Canadian tar sands, an energy reserve that holds about 2/3 of the recoverable oil as compared to current reserves in Saudi Arabia. To extract oil from the tar sands, greenhouse gas-producing energy is used. This is significant because the US Department of Defense is the world’s largest single buyer of light refined petrol. This will also effect our trade relations with Canada in a negative way. Would you rather buy oil from Canada (an ally) or Iran/Saudi Arabia/Iraq/etc.? The answer is pretty clear. Our ally to the north is a better option.
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So, for all the talk of Energy Independence and Security, we are getting neither. We are barred from domestic drilling in Alaska, Florida, and California by the Democrats. We are barred from adding nuclear plants by Democratic leaning special interest groups and lawsuits filed to stall construction of plants. We are barred from using existing coal-to-liquid petrol (synthetic oil technologies) as well. The fact that President Bush signed this lousy piece of legislation is disappointing. The fact that Obama and Clinton voted for this bill is a sign that they are not really interested in change. This is a classic example of politicians speaking out both sides of their mouth. While that is nothing new, what is truly amazing is that the United States will continue to suffer as a result.
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http://idahofallz.com/2008/03/04/ene...a-and-clinton/
Here is a link to a summary of the bill:
http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL34294_20071221.pdf
Next, time you fill up think about our great leaders in Washington. The next time OPEC nations try to flex their muscles using oil as leverage, think about our great leaders in Washington. All the talk about energy independence is B.S.