Alastair Sloane: Foreign oil not a game

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US lobby group Safe - Securing America's Future Energy - has been playing a simulated war game called Oil ShockWave.

It deals with a scenario where the US becomes politically unstable after a series of oil price shocks. Its members include former US Government people, retired military and intelligence heavyweights and oil company and business executives.

Retired US Navy Admiral Dennis Blair is a member and believes the US appetite for oil has entangled American foreign policy - and troops - in the Middle East.

"It was an accumulated feeling over 35 years of a naval career, just watching our armed forces get sucked into that region," Blair told Automotive News. "Underlying it all was that attachment to oil that really involved us in that region."

Safe held its first Oil ShockWave in 2005. The chairman then was Robert Gates, who went on to become US Secretary of Defence. Other Safe events have drawn Washington luminaries such as then-Senator Barack Obama.

Safe has lobbied for US federal policies to cut dependence on oil. It was instrumental in founding the Electrification Coalition, a group of business leaders promoting electric vehicles. It believes that electricity is the best alternative to petroleum.

"We figured we needed an energy source for transportation that is domestically produced, widely distributed and available from a variety of sources," said Blair. "That really drove us to electricity."

He says the US is "a little late to the game" in vehicle fuel economy.

"If you look at the level of technology and the mileage that we get on our cars, we are behind Europe and even behind China," he said.

But concern over dependence on petroleum is growing. General Motors recently surveyed early buyers of the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid and found that the main reason they wanted an EV was "reducing dependence on foreign oil".

Blair says Safe's message that the US needs a different vehicle fuel is gaining traction, at least in principle.

"I think we've certainly passed the first hurdle," he said. "People don't fight us on the logic or the message. It's just a question of the speed and the priorities."