R. James Woolsey maintains that a national fleet of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles would largely end U.S. dependence on oil. ERIKA LARSEN Redux PicturesFor National Security, Get Off Oil -- Scientific American
Former CIA director R. James Woolsey says America's oil dependence is a grave threat
At R. James Woolsey’s farm in southern Maryland, solar panels on the roof of his house send electricity back to the utility grid when his family is not using much power. And he drives a Toyota Prius hybrid with a conversion kit that enables him to recharge the car’s battery pack using an extension cord and household current.
Woolsey isn’t the average citizen who has gone green. As the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1993 to 1995, Woolsey warns that the U.S. faces a grave national security threat from its dependence on energy derived from oil. “I think we need to go right for oil’s jugular vein,” he says.
The peril to national security arises from a variety of concerns, such as the vulnerability of the oil infrastructure and the consequences of funneling enormous sums of money to regimes unfriendly to the U.S. Although some experts focus on increasing the supply of domestic oil to lessen dependence on foreign sources, Woolsey believes that slashing demand for oil in transportation is the more promising approach.
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