Weaponizing fuel: U.S. energy debate overlooks Russian, Chinese postures.

• Author: Frodl, Michael G.
• Position: Energy

Energy security is now being given serious attention. Development of solar, wind and other renewable energy technologies appears to be coming closer to reality as President Obama proposes spending billions of dollars to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and to stop sending dollars to regimes that fund terrorism.

But while all this talk is exciting, it is disconnected from economic reality--many alternative energy technologies still are neither industrially scalable nor commercially sustainable--and also from political and military actuality.

A case in point is how Russia and China view energy security. The U.S. debate explicitly incorporates environmental objectives and implicitly endorses isolationist tendencies, while the Russian and Chinese versions explicitly promote expansionist tendencies while discounting or even ignoring environmental objectives.

How does Putin's Russia understand the term "energy security?"

Not wind mills, solar farms or anything that is environmentally friendly. Putin probably doesn't worry much about global warming. He's obviously quite happy Arctic ice is melting, since that allows Russia to expand north and claim new fiches on the floor of its continental shelf. Putin also probably finds it odd to mention "renewables" and "security" in the same breath. Energy security for Russia is not a "dual use" product. For Russia, it means making the country safe from foreign threats. This is done by leveraging its immense natural gas and oil reserves not just to boost its GDP, but also to reinvigorate its political influence while rebuilding an intimidating global war machine.

For Russia, energy security means "weaponizing" energy. It is not a philosophy that aims at some future self-sufficient "clean energy" paradise. It is a doctrine for today, which takes the world as it is, vulnerable and addicted to "dirty energy" such as natural gas, oil and coal, and exploits that dependence to make Russia stronger. With this cynical way of looking at the world, much akin to the way Colombian drug lords regard cocaine addicts, Russia pursues an energy security that is quite alien to what most Americans dreamily think it to be.

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