Energy R&DEncouraging energy R&D, substituting solar, wind, and safe nuclear energy for fossil fuels is a big plus for safeguarding the global environment. But it is also a vital step in fighting terrorism. For many decades, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC as the international cartel is commonly known, successfully regulated world oil supplies and thereby the price of a barrel of oil on the international market. By doing so it filled the national treasuries of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela and nine her nations across the globe, giving them an outsized role on the stage of world affairs, where their interests often did not align with ours.

Such policy conflicts have been a prime motivation behind the bipartisan goal of making America energy independent. But even if U.S. policymakers succeeded, oil-producing nations such as Saudi Arabia and Iran would retain their clout so long as the rest of the world continued to feed at the petroleum trough. Weaning the entire world off oil is the only answer.

President Obama has accused Saudi Arabia of aiding terrorism by using its oil money to finance madrassas around the globe, which preach the ultra-conservative brand of Islam known as Wahhabism embraced by Islamic terrorist groups, such as ISIS, Al Qaeda and Boko Haram. And the entire world recognizes that Iran has used its oil money to foment sm across the Middle East.

Cutting off the stream of petrodollars that fund terrorism should be a prime objective of U.S. energy policy. Investing in energy R&D and making oil a commodity of the past should be a high, bi-partisan priority for Congress and the White House.

 

Full article published in  The Hill on May 11, 2016