In addition to the clear economic benefits of not sending so much of our national income to the Middle East or other oil-exporting regions, reduced oil dependency also lessens our need to worry and costs related to securing foreign oil sources and production.
U.S. Energy Information Agency, Country Energy Profiles.
Substituting domestic electricity for foreign oil enables the rail component of our transportation sector to rely instead on numerous other energy sources, including renewable energies such as wind, solar, bio-fuels, and hydro. The Steel Interstate System, then, offers an “alternate” form of mobility, which consumes far less fuel than trucks and cars do. When electrified, the Steel Interstate would use only domestic renewable energy. Military planners call this redundancy, an essential part of strategic planning.
The list of top petroleum exporters includes some of the oldest enemies of the U.S. and some with which America has had the most unproductive diplomatic history. Other nations on the list are racked by years of civil war, coup d’etats, and/or popular resistance to what is seen as exploitative mineral extraction. Some of these nations have supported organizations which have carried out terrorist acts against U.S. citizens, our soldiers and our allies.
In the past two decades, the U.S. has waged war within the boundaries of two of the top world exporters of oil. Canadians deployed troops in one of these military actions. There is strong disagreement about whether these wars were “resource” (oil) wars. Regardless of the arguments, it is clear that among the most tangible results of the wars in Kuwait and Iraq was restoration and security of petroleum exports and reserves for Western consumption.
The U.S. and Canada spent billions of dollars on these wars. U.S. expenditures during the Gulf War are estimated at $61 billion. Coalition nations reimbursed the U.S. about $54 billion.[Horan, Fred, How much did the Gulf War cost the US? “Information taken from "Conduct of the Persian Gulf War", The Final Report to the US Congress by the US Department of Defense; April 1992; Appendix P.”] The cost to the U.S. of the War in Iraq is closing in on three-quarters of a trillion dollars. Together with the cost of war in Afghanistan, adjacent to the unstable Middle East-South Asian petroleum pool, the U.S. has spent over $1.1 trillion.[Cost of War, National Priorities Project]
Money, however, doesn’t begin to count the cost of war. Three hundred and eighty-two American soldiers lost their lives in Operation Desert Storm/Shield. Another 839 were injured. In the Iraq War alone, almost 3500 U.S. soldiers have given their lives thus far. Nearly 32,000 have been injured. [United State Casualties of War, Wikipedia] It will take two generations for the full burden of these wars to be felt by society in terms of medical, psychological, veterans, and social service costs. The human burden is borne daily by families who lost loved ones. We should not neglect that there is also an unfathomable cost in lives and property among civilian victims in the theaters of these wars.
Peak Oil could cause gasoline and diesel prices to skyrocket and supplies to be interrupted and become undependable. With long lines of irritated motorists waiting at service stations just to pump a maximum of five gallons amount of fuel, there could soon be social chaos. Essential goods like food and medicine could experience supply disruption. Anger and resentment could become the order of the day. Unless our leaders educate citizens about these risks, some citizens may direct their anger arbitrarily and become prey to unscrupulous political demagogues. In a climate of heady rising consumer expectations in China and India, already driving up worldwide demand for more energy, it won’t take much of a spark to set the world on fire for oil.
In the interest of national security, we must wean ourselves from imported oil. We need to begin now the critical national planning required to move goods and people in coming decades when oil becomes prohibitively expensive and ultimately too costly or unavailable as a transportation fuel. We need to start to build an oil-free transportation system.
Substituting domestically produced electricity is the key. There are no technical barriers to railroad electrification. The technology is available today and widely used around the world. The Steel Interstate System would readily move people and products, and make the U.S., and our Canadian, and Mexican neighbors, stronger and more secure by meeting the food and resource needs of our peoples without dependence on foreign oil. This is an investment in our economy, taking the place of buying energy from overseas.
Further down the line, railroads can play a significant role in transmitting and providing an efficient market for renewable wind and solar energy.
