As Ukraine grapples with war and the United States faces high energy prices, the oil and gas industry claims—wrongly—to have the solution: more drilling. The American Petroleum Institute (API), a trade association, is especially pushing for more domestic fossil fuel production, particularly on public lands.
Here’s what’s wrong with this so-called solution: furthering our dependency on fossil fuels won’t actually solve our security and energy issues. It will eventually make them worse.
What industry spokespeople and their lobbyists forgot to mention is that relying on fossil fuels is actually dangerous—and always has been. Oil and gas companies have shown repeatedly that they will always prioritize making money over our safety, health and national security. They, and their CEOs, will always prioritize their own interests over the public’s, even if that means enabling aggressive foreign actors.
Oil and gas companies have shown repeatedly that they will always prioritize making money over our safety, health and national security.
For the same reason, we will never drill our way to lower energy prices.
Fossil fuel markets are notoriously unstable, largely based on profit, global supply and demand assumptions. Price spikes based on speculation are routinely passed on to everyday people at the gas pumps. More drilling at home would do little to change these dynamics and bring down costs in the short term.
Wars and other destabilizing events also highlight this volatility. The U.S. has recently banned Russian energy imports as a stance against the war in Ukraine. While these commodities contribute a small slice of the country’s energy portfolio—roughly 8 percent in 2021—it shows the unpredictability of relying on this type of energy.
And that’s not all. Perpetuating a fossil fuel economy will lead to a slew of other problems.
Over 40 percent of the world’s population is “highly vulnerable” to climate impacts and 14 percent of species are at risk of extinction.
First of all, continuing to burn oil, gas, and coal will only further the climate crisis that is already devastating communities and wildlife. The United Nations recently warned that over 40 percent of the world’s population is “highly vulnerable” to climate impacts and 14 percent of species are at risk of extinction.
And let’s not forget: fossil fuels—the remains of plants and animals that died hundreds of millions of years ago—will run out. By the time your grandkids or great-grandkids are old enough to pay utility bills, we might be looking at the end of the nation’s natural gas reserves as we know them. Just imagine the instability that will cause at home and abroad–unless we put in the …….