New Report: Texas on Track to Spend $185,062,000,000 Annually on Oil by 2030

AUSTIN – Texas is on track to spend $185,062,000,000 annually on oil by 2030 – more than double what we spent in 2006.  At the same time, pollution from the production and use of oil is a leading source of air pollution, water pollution, and global warming pollution, said Environment Texas in a new report released this week analyzing government energy data. 

“America’s dependence on oil is a major drain on our economy, harms our health and environment, and threatens our security.  This Independence Day, we are calling on Congress to break our dependence on Big Oil,” said McCall Johnson of Environment Texas.

America has less than 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves yet uses 25 percent of the world’s oil supply.  In 2007, America spent more than $360 billion importing fossil fuels, with the vast majority of that money spent on crude oil.  Those funds are a direct transfer of wealth from our consumers to oil companies and foreign governments, said Johnson.  

“It is critical for our national security that we break America’s dependence on fossil fuels, which puts our troops’ lives at risk, empties our nation’s treasury, funds our enemies, and fuels the threat of climate change,” said former U.S. Army Captain and Iraq veteran Jonathan Powers. 

These figures do not include the untold damages to our environment, health, and society resulting from the production and use of fossil fuels – such as global warming, air and water pollution, and oil spills.

A 2007 Government Accountability Office report found that 51 large oil spills in the United States between 1990 and 2006 incurred between $860 million and $1.1 billion in removal costs and compensation for damages.  This does not include damages from hundreds of smaller spills over that same period of time.

In contrast, moving to clean energy – fuel efficient vehicles, transit-oriented development, and wind and solar power – would save money, even excluding the additional benefits for the environment, health, and security.  For instance, a recent report by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that transitioning to clean energy would cut costs by $900 per household annually by 2030 and save consumers and businesses a total of $1.7 trillion between 2010 and 2030. In addition, clean energy creates jobs here at home, since clean energy projects tend to be labor intensive and cannot be outsourced. 

“When the choice is between paying to uphold a dirty polluting status quo and investing in a new direction for Texas, clean energy is the clear winner,” said Johnson. 

Last Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454), landmark legislation that creates a framework for moving toward a clean energy economy and curbing global warming. 

“While the dramatic shift we need in our energy policy and the dire scientific predictions regarding global warming demand that we do much more, the first step is always the hardest. We learn to walk before we can run; this historic act by Congress gets us up on our feet and heading toward a clean energy economy,” said Johnson. 

Environment Texas called on the Senate to strengthen and pass the bill.