Syed Rashid Husain ENERGY and politics go hand in hand. Wars and conflicts have been initiated, fought, won & lost, in attempt to exert control on global energy resources. This energy rich is well aware of all this. In the aftermath of the fall of Shah of Iran in 1979, Carter doctrine was formulated and a Rapid Deployment Force was established by the US to guard against “any attempt by any outside force to gain control of the ...... Gulf region, which will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States." Last Tuesday when President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney met for the second face-to-face debate, sparks began to fly – almost instantly. The President and the Governor, both were seen attempting to emerge as the prime protector of the energy interests of the US. They sparred over oil production on public lands and the factors behind the rise in gasoline prices during the president's first term. This was very much a part of Washington political milieu. Past administrations too have been no exception. In his State of the Union address on Jan. 31, 2006, President Bush highlighted that America was addicted to oil often originating from unstable parts of the world. Although shale gas and tight oil was not on the horizon, yet president Bush then set a goal of replacing 75 percent of the nation's oil imports by 2025 with ethanol and other energy sources. And then he repeated the mantra in 2007 address too: “Let us build on the work we have done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next 10 years — when we do that we will have cut our total imports by the equivalent of three-quarters of all the oil we now import from the Middle East. And the next Democrat White House incumbent Obama too had been no different, saying in 2008 that when it comes to the oil we import from other nations, obviously we've got to look at neighbors like Canada and Mexico that are stable and steady and reliable sources." And the US crude import scenario stands very much altered today. Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela – and not Middle East - now are the major, crude suppliers to the US. The current presidential campaign continues to move in the same direction – as far as energy strategy is concerned. Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are vowing to break the United States free of foreign oil, offering a pledge of at least North American “energy independence." In their last encounter too, the two attacked each other's position on energy policy– rather vehemently. Obama took pride in insisting that today the US domestic crude production is standing at the highest level in 16 years. However, Governor Romney while conceding that the US was harvesting more oil from within its own borders was of the clear view that much of the surge in domestic crude production is coming from private lands, not federal tracts under the government's control. Romney promised ambitious plans by striving to achieve “North American energy independence by 2020," largely by expanding offshore drilling, relaxing environmental regulations and putting states in control of permitting energy projects on federal land within their borders. Romney also has pledged to approve the Keystone XL pipeline that would deliver Canadian oil sands crude from Alberta to refineries along the Gulf Coast. The current administration officials say they are set to make a decision on the controversial pipeline proposal early next year. Obama, the Democrat, meanwhile, insisted on an “all-of-the-above" approach to energy, combining support for renewable fuels and alternative power with domestic oil and gas production. “Gov. Romney will say he's got an all-of-the-above plan, but basically his plan is to let the oil companies write the energy policies. So he's got the oil and gas part, but he doesn't have the clean energy part," Obama said. “And if we are only thinking about tomorrow or the next day and not thinking about 10 years from now, we're not going to control our own economic future. Because China, Germany, they're making these investments. And I'm not going to cede those jobs of the future to those countries." The issue of gas pricing was another hot potato on the plate. Obama was specifically asked: “Your energy secretary, Steven Chu, has now been on record three times stating it's not policy of his department to help lower gas prices. Do you agree with Secretary Chu that this is not the job of the Energy Department?" And the Governor further added: “When the president took office, the price of gasoline here in Nassau County was about $1.86 a gallon. Now it's four bucks a gallon." Gasoline prices have indeed risen in the last four years, but economists widely agree they were artificially low in 2008 due to the global economic crisis. “The economy was on the verge of collapse ... we were about to go through the worst recession since the Great Depression as a consequence of some of the same policies that Governor Romney is now promoting. So it's conceivable that Governor Romney could bring down gas prices, because with his policies we might be back in that same mess," the president quipped. Obama also reiterated the emphasis on efficiency. “That's why we doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars," he said. “That means that in the middle of the next decade, any car you buy, you're going to end up going twice as far on a gallon of gas." Oil markets are changing and changing rapidly. New frontiers are emerging. And all this will have considerable political and economical impact on the global oil markets. It carries immense geopolitical connotations too, one has to understand and underline. The ongoing debate on the issue today, in the world's largest market, the sole surviving super power, is enough to signify profound and basic changes coming in the way the world is run currently. OPEC oil producers are definitely aware of it. They are measuring their next steps too. Yet the need for greater attention to the changing dynamics is a must. The next era may not remain to be a crude driven era. Economically speaking, value addition to energy resources seems a viable option. And interestingly Saudi Aramco – seems heading this very direction!
