To Have and Have Not: Energy security vs energy independence in a world awash in cheap oil

And here’s where they are going to be deploying. Smack in the middle of the South China Sea and that petroleum trade.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with what they are doing; we would do the same. It’s just risky. Because what we are seeing is the incursion of China into the South China Sea and building facilities and installations. And you’ve probably heard about this on the news; this slide is from Jane’s, and if it reminds you a little of the before and after photos from the Cuban Missile Crisis, that’s understandable.

So, let’s return to where we started for a moment, and ask ourselves, do we feel secure? When we see these photos and we read about the US and China posturing and confronting in this region, are we secure, and are we energy secure?

In The Digest I have asked readers to create a separation in their minds between the phrases “energy independent” and “energy secure”. Energy independence is very easy to describe, and is easy to achieve if you happen to have the resources, and that is making as much energy as you consume.

Now, energy security is often confused with energy independence. In 1941 the United States was the most energy independent nation on earth; we exported more energy than any other nation. But were we energy secure? On December 7th 1941, were we secure? Why were we undergoing attack, and why did we find ourselves at war? Over energy, right? So, what is energy security?

So I ask you to separate those two terms in your mind, and to remember that every nation has a right to secure access to the energy it needs for the economy it can build. But what every nation would benefit from is a sustainable, domestic source of energy, and not one that flowed through international waters such as the South China Sea.