This book by Robert Zubrin details our current dependence on foreign oil, the consequences of that dependence, and what we could do about it. There is too much information to cover in a single review, so this part will be about the current situation and the consequences. The first sentence of the Preface warns, “America is losing the war on terror.” The author lays much of the blame for that on the wealth being looted to buy oil from the Mideast as a result of our failure to have a competent energy policy, and that money is financing the war against us. Petro dollars have been and are funding Islamic schools that graduate the fanatics who will plan and execute future terrorist acts. Iran is developing nuclear weapons with the proceeds from oil.

The author is no fan of Saudi Arabia, and he provides a history of that country to back up his position. Muhammad ibn Saud and Muhammed ibn Abd al Whahhab formed a partnership in the mid-eighteenth century to foster their belief that the Islamic world had a duty to wage jihad. Their religion deemed that humanity was divided into Muslims, infidels, and polytheists. Once the Muslims conquered an area, the infidels (including Christians and Jews) would be allowed to live as inferiors. The polytheists (Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, and “insufficiently orthodox Muslims”) were to be killed without delay. Saud married Wahhab’s daughter, and the Saudi royal family was formed. They began their jihads, and inhabitants of Shiite areas were massacred. In 1932 Ibn Saud proclaimed the conquered areas to be Saudi Arabia and all inhabitants to be personal property of the royal family. He formed alliances with American businessmen to avoid the imperialistic British. Roosevelt signed a treaty with him in World War II to ensure America’s fuel supplies.

The book lists politicians associated with the Saudis, including Nixon, Clinton, and both Bushes. The Saudis also have significant financial investments in AOL and the Fox and CNN networks. There is a reference to a meeting between a Saudi bagman in San Clemente with Richard Nixon. The bagman “forgot” his briefcase containing a million dollars at the end of the meeting, and Nixon never called to report the oversight.

The economics of oil given in the book are startling. The Saudi oil minister in 1999 said the average cost for OPEC to find and produce a barrel of oil was five dollars and much less for the Saudis. With oil selling at $75, OPEC was earning a profit of more than five billion dollars a day. The low cost of the finding and producing oil allows OPEC to damage efforts to reduce dependence on oil. New Zealand built a facility in the early 1980s to convert natural gas into methanol. The facility provided the country with a third of its liquid fuel needs, but was shut down when OPEC dropped the price of oil to $10. A Brazilian President began converting his country to alcohol fuels in the 1970s. OPEC responded to the eventual success of those efforts by once again cutting the price of oil. However, Brazil persisted, and that country became a net energy exporter in 2006.

Part II will give more details about how Brazil broke its dependence on oil and gives suggestions for how the U.S. could follow suit.