With President Hugo Chavez setting May 1st as the deadline of an ambitious plan to wrest control of several oil projects from US and European companies, a showdown is looming over access to some of the most coveted energy resources outside the Middle East.
The implications of this and the continuous change in control over global oil reserves from private entities to national companies are start for the Western world. Being far more political, the national companies pose a far greater energy security threat than people like Saddam Hussein ever did.
So the key is how to mitigate this increased politicization of the global oil? Perhaps by more than a “token” shift in energy subsidy policy towards renewables. Europe has a 20/20 target being 20% renewable by 2020. Is this enough? Why just Europe? While so much focus is placed on the benefits of renewable energy for climate change, how about energy independance and security? Nobody can take your roof from you unless by force. The sooner we have all of our rooftops covered in solar tiles, the sooner we own our future and thus our security.
Sass