The following is the fourth in a seven-part series on American energy security by U.S. Representative Jo Ann Emerson.

“American ingenuity is our greatest asset, and in university labs and at biofuels companies throughout the Midwest, that ingenuity is working to create new, efficient, affordable alternatives to oil.

We have a head start in the growing global competition for energy resources because we are not looking solely at oil to secure our future.

Last month, Russia took a capsule with a titanium flag in it to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.  In future years, they will argue their claim on a seabed thought to be rich in oil and gas reserves.  Their newspapers speculate on another Cold War – this one spurred by competition for energy resources.

The scarcity of resources has driven India to engage in geopolitics outside the realm of OPEC, working to woo oil-rich nations such as Syria, Nigeria, Tajikistan and Sudan.  Right beside them is China, adding to the pressure on limited oil resources on the global market for fuels.

China is building at breakneck speed.  As it continues to expand and to urbanize, the nation has surged to the third-greatest oil importer in the world.  Chinese consumption of oil has been growing 10 percent annually for the past several years.  Of the world’s 20 most-polluted cities, 16 are in China.  Fossil fuels are firing an economic revolution unparalleled in history.

 
Yet, America is the world’s most energy intense economy.  We consume 23 percent of the world’s oil each year, and we produce 22 percent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product.  As you can imagine, the U.S. trade deficit, measured in the billions, heavily reflects the colossal amount of energy resources we import.  Chipping away at this problem by replacing 35 billion gallons of petroleum gasoline with biofuels by 2017 is a noble start, but the distant goal of total energy independence will be much more difficult to attain.

Simply put, there is not enough corn on the planet to accomplish the conversion of our economy to ethanol-only.

The challenge, if you have been reading these columns for the past several weeks, is to find sustainable long-term solutions through alternative fuels and domestic resources.

Here is how America rises above the global competition for energy: aggressively shifting to domestic energy resources while pursuing as many renewable technologies as we can.  Oil and natural gas exploration, for example, would target the Achilles’ heel of U.S. energy policy, the fact that these two resources today account for 65 percent of energy consumption.  At the same time, it is imperative that our country invest in long-term, clean and renewable energy resources: in those families are nuclear energy, coal gasification, efficient and clean electricity from wind and water, even hydrogen power for automobiles.

Still, achieving new technologies is not that simple.  A great deal of science and even more policy reforms will be necessary if, in 20, 30, or 50 years, America is to emerge, alone, from this global competition for energy resources.”

Next week: Put Corn in Your Car: Making ethanol part of the solution to the energy crisis.