The Red and Black

Issue date: 8/25/08 Section: Opinions

ROCKY COLE

What I'm about to tell you is a secret. At least I think it's a secret - if people already knew, they would be angry. Ready?

We are facing the largest energy crisis in our nation's history.

The laws of supply and demand - along with China's gas price ceilings and Wall Street's oil speculators - have driven energy prices to record highs, and it's now clear the world is running out of easily accessible oil reserves.

Analysts have predicted recent calls for increased offshore drilling will not immediately lower gas prices or provide a long term solution for energy independence. Things are so bad that even longtime oil baron T. Boone Pickens has declared this is one crisis we can't "drill our way out of."

But this can't really be a secret. We cannot help but be reminded of it every time we purchase a tank of gasoline or hear the price of oil has risen another $20.

Here's the real secret: the federal government still dolls out billions of dollars to the oil industry every year in the form of tax credits and direct subsidies.

That's right, folks. Despite the fact that oil prices continue to reach record highs, Big Oil continues to post record profits (an estimated $123 billion last year for the five largest companies) and alternative energy sources are scarce at best, Congress sees to it that billions of your hard-earned tax dollars go to the very companies that want to prolong our oil addiction beyond its natural life. Adding insult to injury, these subsidies are so large it's almost impossible to determine exactly how much federal funding the oil industry receives annually - estimates range from $18 billion to $30 billion, depending on the source.

One thing is clear, however - the Department of Energy still has not fully embraced renewable energy research to its fullest capacity.

The 2009 Federal Budget reduces funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs by 27 percent, while increasing funding for fossil fuel research by 24 percent compared to the 2008 budget.

Funding for bio-fuel technology, which has proven problematic and perhaps unsustainable, increased nearly 13 percent, while funding for solar energy research - perhaps the most common sense approach to alternative energy behind wind - decreased by 7 percent.

The energy companies that Congress and the president continue to subsidize have invested even less in alternative fuels.

According to the American Petroleum Institute, the five largest oil companies invested more than $100 billion in alternative fuels between the years 2000 to 2005.

A closer inspection, however, reveals that only 1 billion of the supposed 100 was invested in "renewable, alternative and advanced emerging energy technologies" during that time.

In fact, as Daniel M. Kammen and Gregory F. Nemet, two notable professors of public affairs, said, "[Total] investments in energy R&D by U.S. companies fell by 50 percent between 1991 and 2003." There it is.

Now get angry. You've heard the drill before, but this time it's for real: call your Congressman.

Tell him you will not stand for subsidizing the oil industry any longer.

Tell Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson that when the current subsidies expire, you want them to cut the oil industry's tax credits immediately and redistribute the funding to alternative energy industries - or drop energy subsidies all together. It's the only logical thing to do.

Then tell your friends and family. Start a Facebook group. In short, spread the word: make this a hot button grassroots issue.

It's not a sexy issue, but it's one all Georgians - regardless of political affiliation - can rally behind.

- Rocky Cole is a sophomore from Kennesaw majoring in international affairs and economics.

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