Oil keeps U.S. vulnerable, lawmakers told - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States' role as dominant global military and economic power hinges on secure access to crude oil, but U.S. politicians who call for "energy independence" are shouting into the void, experts told a U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday.
The U.S. economy will continue to rely on crude oil imports -- which currently account for more than half the nation's oil consumption -- panelists said at a hearing before the Senate Energy Committee on global oil supplies.
U.S. politicians including
President George W. Bush' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> President George W. Bush say they want motorists to use more home-grown fuels like ethanol to replace imports from Middle East suppliers, including
OPEC' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally.
Yet the idea of "energy independence" is a myth, and attempts to insulate U.S. consumers from world crude oil markets could actually drive up domestic energy prices, said Linda Stuntz, an energy attorney and former Energy Department official.
"Barring draconian measures, the United States will depend on imported oil for a significant fraction of its transportation fuel needs for at least several decades," Stuntz said, citing a Council on Foreign Relations report.
Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs, agreed that energy independence "offers a false promise to the American people," and called for lawmakers to demand that U.S. automobiles become more fuel-efficient.
"Energy independence at this point is not possible, but we can manage our vulnerability a lot better than we are doing today," Hormats said.
State-owned oil companies like those that control oil reserves in
Iran' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Iran, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia will have greater leverage in coming years, Stuntz said.
National oil companies like Saudi Aramco control three-quarters of the world's oil reserves, while Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest privately owned oil company, ranks 14th on the list of proven reserve owners, she said.
"The world will become increasingly dependent on state oil companies to produce the oil that is needed," she said.
The world should not rely on the U.S. military to ensure the security of global oil trade routes, said Charles Wald, former deputy commander of the U.S. military's European Command.
U.S. military ships routinely patrol key oil routes like the Gulf of Hormuz, which handles about 80 percent of Middle East oil exports, and the Caspian Sea, Wald said.
Global trading partners should not rely on what Wald called the "dial 1-800-The U.S. Military syndrome" in coming years, Wald said.
"The United States military cannot protect that vast infrastructure without partners, and trust me, there should be partners in this mission," he said.
Energy security could be the Achilles heel of U.S. global competitiveness over the next 25 years, said Flynt Leverett, a director at the New America Foundation who was once a
Central Intelligence Agency' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Central Intelligence Agency analyst.
"The most profound challenges to U.S. pre-eminence during the next 25 years flow from the strategic and political consequences of ongoing structural shifts in global energy markets," Leverett said.
Growing cooperation between Russia and China on energy projects could create an "axis of oil" and cement Moscow's role as top supplier to both Europe and Asia, Leverett said.