Americans for Informed Democracy: Oil and Climate Change

Conference Report

By: Krystle Corpuz

There were several speakers for the conference who had expertise in various types of environment conservation. They all expressed a unified front in decreasing the United State’s dependence in oil because, essentially, it is our number one vulnerability. The main focus of the conference was for students to realize that increasing gas prices, global warming, conflict in the Middle East, and terrorists were all interlinked. Nothing is a separate issue these days because everything and everyone. As long as Americans continue to maintain a high consumption of oil, America will continue to be linked to the current Middle East Crisis. It was an amazing revelation to make.

The panel of speakers had diverse suggestions to solve the crisis:

1. Wind Energy: Wind Energy is cost effective and can be a domestic source of power. It is the second largest energy supplier and it is available on a larger scale. However, it is hard to bring wind energy to relatively large cities because they would have to be implemented in areas that receive the most wind charge, which is away from the city.

2. Efficient Vehicles: Hybrid Cars are the new vogue in the car market. They run on electricity and take in less gas. The current push is to make the government increase funding on research for more environment-friendly vehicles.

3. Different Types of Fuels: Corn-Based Ethanol and Biodiesel are two proponents of fuels that could be made from our vegetables or recycled products. However, it is hard for corn farmers to mass produce corn to be used as a fuel for vehicles without some substantial government support. The current controversy is over the United States’ current imports of Corn-Based Ethanol from Brazil because it's cheaper than domestic products. This is hurting the corn farmers who experience competition in the market place between their goods and foreign imports.

Hence, advocates are asking for a significant push towards environment conservation and less dependence on oil. It is integral for the United States to begin researching different ways to compensate for the high demand in oil and the high consumption of energy.