Corroded Pipes, Corroded Policy

It is neither a war nor a Category 4 hurricane, but tiny microbes that are serving to remind Americans of the perils of their dependence on oil.

Corrosion caused by bacteria led to the announcement by BP last week that it would be closing down portions of the Prudhoe Bay pipeline, which carries 8 percent of our domestic oil supply. The news served as an apt metaphor for our energy policy--policy as corroded as the pipes along the North Slope.

The pipeline incident was just the latest example of the many ways our oil dependency leaves us vulnerable. Tensions rise in the Middle East. The cost of a barrel of oil goes up. A hurricane forms in the Gulf of Mexico. The cost goes up. A refinery spills 100,000 gallons. The cost goes up. Add to the mix the inevitability of tensions in the Middle East, the ever-expanding active hurricane season threatening offshore drilling and the miles of pipeline between the oil wells and refineries, and you get a sense of the enormity of the threat.

All of this begs the question: What will it take to end our dependence on oil? More specifically, what will it take to get the president to lead on this issue? What will it take to get Congress to act? How high does a gallon of gasoline have to be to get the kind of movement and commitment we need to tackle this challenge?

In 2005, when Congress had the opportunity to overhaul our energy system, they instead passed the business-as-usual Energy Policy Act. When Hurricane Katrina exposed the weakness of the coastal refining capacity, the House of Representatives did not use the opportunity to explore new alternatives, but instead passed the Gasoline for America's Security Act, which rolled back regulations on the oil companies. And this year, instead of working the pass the bipartisan bills that were in both chambers that would have helped to speed new fuels and new technologies to market, Congress used the little work time it had this year to vote for more drilling rather than take up alternatives that the public is demanding.

Fortunately, there are political leaders who are actually doing something to usher in a new energy era. This week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is holding a town hall in Los Angeles, hosted by AGENDA LA and the Los Angeles Apollo Alliance, to discuss with residents new ways for the city to approach energy. Villaraigosa has been a champion, along with a host of mayors who are leading the way. Through wise use of their public resources, they are helping to boost the market for renewable technologies, protecting communities from brownouts and blackouts during periods of high energy demand, lessening pollution and lessening the demand for imported fossil fuels.

By now, there has been a lot of thinking about what it would take to end America's dependence on fossil fuels. We just need the help to implement these ideas. Whether it is approaches like the "oil savings plan" put forward by Set America Free, a plan to produce 25 percent of our energy from renewables by 2025, or rebuilding our downtowns through good jobs and clean energy, like advocates are doing in Los Angeles, Oakland, Trenton, and Newark, we need to be doing something. We probably need to be doing everything. And whatever we do, we need to be doing it at scale and scope equal to that of the problem.

Earlier this year we kicked off the Apollo Challenge, an effort to enlist Americans in challenging our nation's leaders to do what it takes to meet this goal. It is a challenge to us to make our voices heard. Whether you do that through the Apollo Challenge or some other means, we need to let the federal government know that we have noticed that as gas prices keep going up, they have barely lifted a finger to do anything about it, or have made the problem worse by passing bad policy and blocking good policy.

Americans have had enough. We are ready for solutions and are already moving to implement them. But we cannot do it alone, we don't want to do it alone, and we shouldn't have to do it alone.

For more, check out my video-cast of "Corroded Pipes, Corroded Policy".