No country is an energy island

The concept of “energy independence” is often touted in political rhetoric, but what is energy independence? It is when one’s energy system is independent. Simple as that.

That means there are no imports or exports of fuels. There are no imports or exports of parts and supplies. All the transport infrastructure is made in one’s country and maintained completely with the country’s indigenous parts and its own citizen labor. That would include pipelines, oil tankers, barges, trucks, rail networks, LNG carriers and whatever else is used to move fuels. All energy storage devices and fuels would need to be made in the country. All IT systems would need to be created and run internally. All the water and other raw materials for making and processing the energy needs to come from inside of the country.

All investments in the country’s energy systems would be only from its nationals within the country. Any foreign direct investment would not be allowed. All information systems would be made, developed and invested in by only the country’s citizens. Parts, and whatever else is needed, would be supplied entirely internally. All consulting, advising, education, training and the like are done only by the nationals of a country inside of the borders of the country — and these people were all were trained in the same way.

That is not our reality — nor a viable aspiration.

Many of the minerals used to create energy devices, such as batteries are imported — or the batteries are imported, which is more likely the case. Many of the batteries American’s use in their cell phones are made with cobalt and other minerals that are processed in China and other Asian countries, and then repackaged for use in the US. China, in a way, launders the moral and ethical issues surrounding conflict minerals so Americans and others have cell phones that have rechargeable batteries. The U.S. depends directly on China and Russia, and numerous other countries, both foe and friend, for a gigantic amount of our critical minerals for energy and even for defense.

The U.S. imports almost all its uranium for its nuclear plants from places like Canada, Kazakhstan, Russia, Australia and the like. Some of the fuel in our nuclear plants was once the highly enriched uranium used in Soviet nuclear weapons. (Now that is a curious interdependence story.) Think of this: A good chunk of the uranium that goes into keeping American’s lights on comes from Russia.  

I could go on with more constraints and requirements, but I am sure it is already clear: there are no countries that are energy independent.

Independence is independence. It is not interdependence. Interdependence of energy systems is the real way of the world. To say otherwise is political deception. If some leaders really want energy independence, they will need to consider what would happen to their energy security, reliability and resilience as they approach this false nirvana of energy independence.

No fuels could be exported. Think of the revenues lost. No fuels could be imported. Think of the massive increases in oil and oil products prices if the U.S. stopped importing oil. It still imports huge amounts of it. Think of the shortages. Think of the EU with no energy imports allowed. The shocking prices seen these days would seem calm in comparison. India imports a lot of oil and natural gas. China imports increasingly massive amounts of energy. Japan is almost completely dependent on imports of oil, gas, coal and more.

One would be hard pressed to think of a modern developing or developed country that could prosper under energy independence. Go around the globe and work this through if you wish.

Many of the most vital parts of the U.S. electricity system are imported, including transformers, generators, much of the higher tech switching devices and more. Most of the solar panels and wind vanes in use in the U.S. are not from the U.S., especially the new ones, and more likely are from a company in the EU or Asia — and most particularly China.

Many of the best and brightest energy minds and IT professionals in the U.S. are immigrants or green card holders. Many of the best and most useful energy technologies are imported or created via collaborations across countries, including laboratories do cutting edge energy research with guest scientists and technical staff from around the world who add much to the mission and the research.

There is more to the story of why energy security, reliability and resilience in a country are due to the international activities of the country and its businesses, leaders, professors, inventors, big minds and investors.

No country is an island. And this is particularly true with energy. Interdependence — not independence — is the key to energy security, reliability and resilience in most circumstances.

Of course, overreliance on a rival nation is a bad idea. So, the obvious answer is to find an alternative source. That alternative source could come from within the country, or it could be imported from others. A country needs to adjust with the circumstances. But only looking inwardly could lead to vast mistakes.

Willy-nilly and willingly telling people that energy independence is the way to go is just plain wrong. Making our supply chains more secure from our foes just makes sense. However, our energy systems are really systems within systems connected with other systems and nested in yet more systems. And many of these systems are international and interdependent for good reasons. They cut costs for one. They allow the best ideas to flow from one country to another. They allow some of the best and brightest people to flow from one country to another.

Some of the worst economic times for the U.S. and the world were when trade, investment and intellectual flows were thwarted. Take those time periods as a warning — and as a warning for energy systems as well.

No country is an energy island.

Paul Sullivan, Ph.D., is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center, a nonresident senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States in Washington, a senior research associate at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies and lecturer on energy and environmental security at Johns Hopkins. He previously worked as a professor at National Defense University (USA), where he ran the Energy Industry Study. He also taught at Georgetown, The American University in Cairo, and Yale. His present research interests include the energy-resilience nexus, the energy-water-food nexus, economic and resource aspects of human security, energy transitions in MENA, EU energy security, EU-Russian energy relations and the geopolitics of nuclear power trade. His Ph.D. is from Yale. All opinions are his own.