Natural Apex: Defining a National Energy Policy for the Next Decade

We are indeed at an apex, a time when many believe the world we live in today is the best it will ever be.  As Americans, we expect that we will always live in a great and powerful nation, with limitless opportunity and potential to succeed.  However, we also accept as Americans that other nations have the right to pursue every opportunity available to achieve greatness.  What remains to be seen is whether any aspiring nation will influence the world in the future the way the United States has for well over a century.

Contrary to a number of books written on the subject, the United States is not in decline, nor will it be in decline in the next ten, twenty, or fifty years.  Two reasons that America will continue to be a global success story in the years to come are that our nation has consistently demonstrated a willingness to overcome big challenges, and we have the needed natural and human resources to decisively achieve long-term goals.  Such advantages will prove critical as wealth of nations in the future is more accurately measured by availability of natural resources and degree of self-sufficiency.

The United States has an abundance of raw materials, including coal and uranium, and availability of fresh water and arable farmland.  In addition to remaining a great economic and political power in the decades to come, America continues to be the world’s breadbasket.  This distinction will become even more poignant in the years to come.  Eating bread is always preferable to eating crude oil or coal.

“The Post-American World”, written by Fareed Zakaria, assesses the arrival of a new global economic age.  This new age is not based on the demise of America, but rather, on ascension of the rest of the world by embracing capitalism and Western culture.  While the new age may be a time of unparalleled opportunity, it is also a time of increasing tension between industrialized and emerging nations over access to diminishing natural resources, from wheat and rice to heating oil and fresh water.  Access to cheap and plentiful resources helped build and shape economies of North America and Europe in the last century, but may prove to be the Achilles’ heel of economic globalization going forward.    

Zakaria also warns Americans that clear and present dangers are not always the ones we are immediately aware of, unless they occur closer to home.  Asked about the future of the United States during an interview in 2008, he observes: “If we run out of wheat, if we run out of potable water, if we run out of oil…we’ll have to adjust.  The danger for the United States is that those shocks will probably take place outside the United States first.”  While this may be true, the world still looks to the United States for guidance and leadership in solving big problems beyond our own borders.

Willingness and determination by the United States to assume a leadership role in solving an imminent global crisis by first assessing and accepting the impact of dwindling natural resources, then analyzing viable options and alternatives available, and ultimately executing comprehensive plans of action as part of an integrated energy strategy that includes all nations is urgently needed. 

The stakes have never been higher.