Fact or Fiction?
3
The U.S. lacks a comprehensive energy security strategy
True to some degree, but it’s something that will take time.
“America faces a series of significant challenges regarding how we produce energy over the next several decades. Our current energy system undermines our national security, is economically unstable, and environmentally unsustainable,” — American Security Project’s Andrew Holland, American Security Quarterly, 2012
The Department of Energy defines energy security as the assured availability of energy at an affordable cost. The Congressional Budget Office defines it as the ability of U.S. households and businesses to accommodate disruptions of supply in energy markets. U.S. officials recognize the immense importance of achieving energy security strategy, but a rapidly changing global landscape and dynamic variables like climate and economics hamper real-time changes.
Complicating matters further, the U.S. government is not the only party involved – in fact, it some cases, when it comes to energy and especially oil, its not even the main player. “In the United States, decisions about how much oil to import are made not by the government, but by private firms that extract, refine, and sell products made from oil—for example, gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel—to households and businesses,” according to a 2012 report by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office.
- By Elizabeth Bunn