Source: Espinasa, Ramón.
Yet, in 2007, President Bush announced a ten year program to reduce gasoline consumption
by 20%, which will moderate imports. In addition, he introduced in the Congress a bill to
allow oil exploitation in marine areas, which could change the decline of its domestic
production. On the other hand, presidential candidate Barak Obama has focused his energy
agenda on the following points: a) Investing US $150 billion in ten years for the
development of "clean energy"; (b) Save energy during the next 10 years in a proportion
equivalent to imports from the Middle East and Venezuela; c) Development of hybrid cars
with performance of 150 miles per gallon of gasoline; d) Using oil from the strategic
reserve to reduce the consumer price; (e) tax credits to car buyers of low energy
consumption; f) Develop clean energy from coal; g) Obligate the use of licenses to produce
oil and gas, or lose them; g) Regulate future speculator markets; h) That in 2012 10% of
power generation must come from renewable resources and 25% in 2050; i) Increase
secondary recovery by modern methods; j) Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 80%
for 2050. Candidate John McCain coincides with the objectives defined by the Bush
administration, including exploration in marine areas and to encourage the accelerated
development of alternative sources of energy.
It is clear that the announcement of plans in the US is no guarantee of their implementation,
but in this opportunity, before the magnitude of the challenges and threats, they can be
seriously assumed with variants. Recent estimates show that consumption of oil in the US
has fallen in 2008 for the first time in 17 years and that Venezuelan supplies have decreased
at an average of 1.1 M b/d, while the Iraqi and Saudi production tends to increase. This
information is corroborated by IEA re-estimations, according to which the demand for
crude oil for 30 developed countries in 2008, especially in Europe and North America,
would be of 48.6 M b/d, i.e less than 13% in 2007, and that in the case of China, their
imports of crude oil in July 2008 declined by 7% in comparison to the same month in
38
AP, Nueva York, in Portafolio, Bogotá, August 13 2008.
17
Convention