Power and electricity generation come from an array of fossil and renewable sources like natural gas, nuclear, hydro, solar, wind, coal and geothermal. On the other end of the spectrum, 90% of transportation depends on petroleum. That fundamental difference defines a very different policy landscape. Until our cars, trucks, locomotives, ships and airplanes transition to electricity, transportation needs to be a separate conversation.
These data make it clear that ‘drill baby drill’ is not the answer to the economic consequences of oil dependency, no matter how you look at the numbers. Oil enjoys about 90% market share of transportation fuel in the U.S. and higher in the rest of the world. That simple fact accounts for the uniform global price, and further highlights the hard reality: the petroleum industry enjoys a de facto monopoly in transportation.
Rather than more drilling or new mandates, we need a genuine all-the-above strategy to permanently deprive despots and dictators like Putin of their power over our economy and our security. We don’t need government picking winners and losers. A technology neutral and market-based Clean Fuel Standard can diversify the fuels we use and the resources used to produce them. Clean Fuel Standards also happen to be the most cost-effective transportation policy to address our other major global challenge — climate change.
