Green Options

We know that dozens of billions of US dollars go to imported oil every month (nearly $1 billion a day). We know that some of that must go to unstable, unsafe countries.

A new report by the Center for American Progress titled “Oil Dependence is a Dangerous Habit” shows exactly how much oil we are getting from several such countries, and the results leave you wondering how safe we actually are and how serious we are about fighting terrorism and hostile political regimes.

The ironic thing to me, is that the companies so gung-ho about being patriotic and so critical of almost all clean energy efforts are the same companies who are giving so much money (see the graphs below) to these unstable countries.

Ten of the countries who we import a lot of oil from are also on the State Department’s Travel Warning list: Algeria, Chad, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.

Some leading importers may not be on the prestigious Travel Warning list, but show very anti-American foreign and energy policies as well.

Venezuela, one of our top five oil providers, is quite anti-American, if this Washington Post article is any indications of how the country thinks of us.

When researchers from the Syrian Society for Conservation of Wildlife and RSPB noticed that hunters were shooting down sociable lapwings, one of the world’s rarest bird species, they immediately reached out to the government for protection.

Syria sent rangers out to discuss the plight of the lapwings and apparently they have agreed to stop the hunt. Sociable Lapwings are classified as critically endangered by Birdlife International, but their numbers have been on the incline with the discovery of two large flocks in 2007.

With the recent election of Tzipi Livni to the leadership of Israel’s Kadima Party (the leading party in Israel’s ruling coalition), she has the opportunity to become Israel’s first female Prime Minister since Golda Meir and its second ever.