Engage
The nation's leaders wish to navigate away from our oil dependency via policies and spending and this is a noble undertaking. However, in the near term the U.S. must rely on imported oil - it is an inescapable conclusion. Accordingly, The NESS must address how engagement activities will support the gradual transition from imported oil. Engagement must involve diplomacy, leadership, and a hint of political agility in order to mitigate future disputation between the suppliers and consumers.
The international political environment is becoming more complex in the globalized world of oil trade. By 2030 the world will consume approximately 118 Million barrels of oil per day, or roughly 30 Million additional barrels daily above today's rate. This has spawned a fast-paced diplomatic scramble by both developed and developing countries to secure the remaining oil reserves because of the slow progression towards more abundant and safer renewable energies. China and India are aggressively pursuing deals with new partners in oil supply in order to meet their national strategic goals for the next several decades. This, coupled with Middle Eastern Muslims' "unfavorable" views of the U.S., raises the stakes in diplomacy. Energy economist Pete Tertzakian coined the First Principle of Energy Consumption, which observes that a nation's wealth is directly related to its level of energy consumption. China, specifically, has aggressively engaged oil producers worldwide for the opportunity to secure a substantial flow of oil. Recently, China supplanted the United States in both Saudi Arabia and Iraq with larger export agreements. China also recently signed significant oil export agreements with the U.S.'s first and third largest exporters of oil (Canada and Venezuela). China's recent successes suggest one of two things: (1) either the United States has been out-bargained, or (2) our engagement efforts need improvement.
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