Over on The Oil Drum blog, Prof. Cutler Cleveland of BU offers some fact checking on energy independence. Here are the first 4m with added emphasis:

1. “Unfriendly” nations are not our primary source of oil. Only 44% of U.S. oil imports are from members of OPEC, the international oil cartel that is dominated by Middle East producers. Canada and Mexico are the two largest single sources for imported oil in 2007. (Editors note: through 6/08, Mexico has dropped to #3, though this changes seasonally and may revert in 2nd half of year)
2. The U.S. oil resource base is depleted to the extent that it could not yield the roughly 3.7 billion barrels of oil the U.S imported in 2007 (not to mention the additional refined products imported). Domestic oil is far more expensive to produce than oil in most other regions, especially OPEC nations. Increased reliance on domestic oil will put upward pressure on oil prices.
3. Increased U.S. production would have little impact on the level or volatility of oil prices. The price of oil is determined in a global market by a complex array of forces including speculation, weather, geopolitics, decisions by OPEC, and most importantly, by market fundamentals–short and long run supply and demand forces. At the margin, producing decisions made in the U.S. have little influence on this process.
4. Global price determination also means that energy independence won’t protect our economy from supply disruptions abroad. A refinery strike in Venezuela, civil war in the Niger Delta, and other similar events could quickly reduce oil production. Oil instantly becomes more expensive everywhere — the UK, Japan, China, and the U.S. all pay pretty much the same price.

The rest are here, worth a look if you’re interested in the topic.

The fourth item on the above list is phrased a bit misleadingly, complete independence would of course protect us from supply disruptions, but if you read the rest of the article, it’s more clear that he’s just talking about increased domestic production.

Urs Hölzle wrote an interesting post on the Google Blog about power usage in our data centers. The post is rather vauge, but it links to some more detailed information. This quote struck me as quite impressive:

In the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than we will use to answer your query.

In the interview with Charlie Gibson, Sarah Palin said that Alaska produces “nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy”. This isn’t true, but the degree to which it isn’t true depends on how you define her assertion. Here are some facts for different interpretations of this:

• 14% of the oil drilled in the U.S. last year came from Alaska. I’d imagine this is what she was reaching for, but I wouldn’t say that 14% is almost 20%, nor that oil alone constitutes America’s energy supply. It’s important to keep in mind that this is 14% of the oil we produced here, not 14% of what we used. It’s only 4.8% of the oil we use.
• 3.5% of the energy produced in the U.S. came from Alaska, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Alaska provided 2.4% of the energy used here.

(source)

McCain has also made the same assertion recently, but I can’t find the quote (I read it earlier today). Alaska’s certainly an important source of energy for the U.S., I just wish they’d stop misrepresenting it like this.

Speaking of hyperbole, apparently Palin “knows more about energy than probably anyone in the United States of America”:

“Probably”? I’d like to take those odds!

After over a week out of town, I’m pretty much caught up on the news now (except the Daily Show…). Energy has become a front-and-center issue, which is a good thing regardless of who wins. Unfortunately, the McCain campaign has been taken over by the kids from the playground.

The celebrity ad got McCain a lot of press: juxtaposing Britney Spears and Paris Hilton with Barack Obama offends the intellect on so many levels I’m at a loss for words. Even McCain’s mother said “I think it’s kinda stupid”. I can’t imagine what I’d have to do for my mother to publicly describe it as “kinda stupid”…

Soon after, someone at a McCain event asked him about the ad, specifically with respect to his earlier talk about respectful campaigning, and McCain said “We’re proud of that commercial”:

I don’t mind negative campaigning, but there was no substance in that ad… McCain has to know that.

And then there was tire inflation…
Time magazine crunched the numbers from experts and the Bush administration and came to the conclusion:

The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 bbl. per day by 2030. We use about 20 million bbl. per day, so that would meet about 1% of our demand two decades from now. Meanwhile, efficiency experts say that keeping tires inflated can improve gas mileage 3%, and regular maintenance can add another 4%. Many drivers already follow their advice, but if everyone did, we could immediately reduce demand several percentage points.

McCain mocked the idea and characterized it as the entirety of Obama’s energy plan, here’s Obama’s response, which I think is concise and clear:

The open mockery among conservatives of something that would actually work isn’t as surprising as I wish it were. This is the gas tax “holiday” all over again. McCain is picking what polls well instead of what actually works well (unintuitively).

I think there’s a lot of value in bringing up practical issues like this in the campaign. I didn’t know that tire pressure had that much of an effect on gas mileage, though I knew it had some. Now I’d like to keep a closer eye on mine. Presidents should ask us to help out in causes of national importance. Bush just asks us to go shopping and gives out war-time tax cuts… it’s pretty ridiculous.

The democrats have a good roundup of McCain’s transformation:

And finally, Paris Hilton’s reply to the McCain ad, which was partly funny:

Steve Benen:

watching the Hilton video, a few questions came to mind. First, why is that Paris Hilton’s fake ad includes more substantive talk about energy policy than John McCain’s real ad? Second, if writers helped Hilton with her script, and writers helped McCain with his script, why is it that Hilton seems to have a better grasp on policy details than McCain does? Shouldn’t that be, you know, the other way around?

Indeed…

That’s enough outrage for now, I’m tired.