Hearing of the House Select Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee - Shock and Oil: Where Military Concerns Meet Consumer, Climate Crises
Interview
Hearing of the House Select Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee - Shock and Oil: Where Military Concerns Meet Consumer, Climate Crises
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REP. JOHN HALL (D-NY): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you for holding this hearing.
Thank you to both of our excellent witnesses. And I did actually write that song in 1978. It started out, "Just give me the warm power of the sun." I mean, the rest is power of the wind, et cetera. I also wish that we as a country had started doing those things, including conservation and all the renewables that were available then. We would be in a much different position today.
Admiral, you talked about being jacked around by countries that we used to have a freer hand to deal with. And you know, it seems to me that our options diplomatically or economically have been limited in terms of how we deal with, for instance, with Saudi Arabia on one hand and China on the other hand. Is that what you would call a loss of sovereignty?
MR. BLAIR: Absolutely. The more you're constrained because of your dependence on another country, the more sovereignty you've lost.
REP. HALL: Yeah. I mean, that just seems to me like we're going down the road that this country, residents of this country, citizens of the United States have never understood what it's like to be in the position that Brazil was in the '70s, for instance, where the world financial markets dictated to them certain things they had to do or else they wouldn't get their next round of debt floated. So I think we need to be aware of that, that oil -- our consumption of oil is putting us in that position.
MR. BLAIR: I think that's absolutely right. Some of that came up in these simulations when the secretary of State said in this simulation, well, I went to Country X and asked them if they would increase their amount of oil. And Country X said, yeah, I can do that.
But there are a couple of things I want from you, United States, and I want you to lay off hitting me on this policy that I'm doing. I want you to make this concession. So it puts us in a position of having to spend some of our blue chips to get some of theirs, and we'd just as soon not be there.
REP. HALL: So my point is -- I think you agree with me, and I'm agreeing with both of you here -- is that what your simulations showed is in fact happening already, tangibly. That we are in a national security and sovereignty emergency. That we're only recognizing -- unfortunately, the public and, you know, perhaps our political leaders are only starting to get a handle on how fragile our situation is.
Admiral, you talked about oil being a fungible commodity. Would you agree that to a large extent, conservation is also fungible -- that saving energy anywhere frees up other energy somewhere else? I mean, understanding that liquid fuels are different from electricity, but to the extent that hybrids, or plug-in hybrids, or biofuels or conservation of any of the above will free up more oil?
ADM. BLAIR: It's not completely -- completely fungible. Turning down your thermostat doesn't mean you import less oil automatically.
REP. HALL: Unless you're burning oil at home -- the heater.
MS. BROWNER: That's a small --
ADM. BLAIR: But -- and we're mainly concerned about, as I say, the oil sector. But it's headed in the same direction.
REP. HALL: Right. Okay. Regarding demand, my colleague from Tennessee was talking about demand, and I, you know, her point is good. I just wanted to add to that my observations from watching what little hours of television I have time to watch that the advertising -- and I have some experience in the advertising industry as well, and I've had songs used for advertisements, and I always watch them with a -- you know, that sort of professional eye.
It seems to me that Detroit is advertising power and speed and style, and not advertising efficiency. And if you take notes, just make it a project one night to sit in front of the TV and every time a car ad comes on, make a note of what kind of car is being advertised and whether they're touting efficiency and reliability or whether they're touting sexiness and speed and 340 horsepower to leap out of the stop sign or the merge ramp.
I'm driving by choice, although I could have gone with an import and gotten 20 more miles per gallon driving a -- my own personal car is a Detroit-made, union-built hybrid, full-time four-wheel-drive SUV, which is rated at 33 miles per gallon and will get better than that if you drive it at 55 miles per gallon (sic) and stay in the right lane and let people whiz by you.
MS. BROWNER: Inflate your tires -- (laughter) --
REP. HALL: And take it easy going out from the stop signs or stop lights. If you step on it and drive angry, you're getting in the 20s. So I just wanted to throw that in and say your suggestion of a possible national speed limit again is something that I believe, you know, we should be considering. But it's going to take --
Basically what you're talking about is leadership, I mean, as I hear it, that everybody needs to feel that the sacrifice is shared and the only way that that's likely to happen is to have it come from a strong statement of the leadership of our country that this is -- (gavel sounds) -- we are now all approaching this together and sharing the burden.
I'm sorry to talk so much and ask so few questions. My time is expired. Mr. Chairman, I yield.
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