BioFuels Journal

If Ukraine can build a renewable energy sector based on its vast agricultural production, it won’t need Russian energy and could, perhaps, protect its sovereignty to a much greater extent than it can today because of its Achilles’ heel of energy dependence.

Instead of propping up Ukraine’s inefficient energy sector, the United States and Europe should provide technical and financial assistance to Ukraine so it can pursue a renewable energy strategy that would promote its energy independence, provide jobs in rural areas, boost farm income and reduce greenhouse gases.

This is what the Renewable Fuels Standard has done for the United States in the past 10 years.

If the successes of the RFS can be duplicated in Ukraine, it will go a long way toward reducing Ukraine’s need for Russian energy and make it less vulnerable to Russian political pressure.

Developing a domestic, renewable energy sector in Ukraine would curb Russia’s oil-applied leverage to punish Ukraine for wanting closer economic ties with the European Union.

Ukraine’s energy servitude to the Russians has consequences beyond its borders. Pipelines carrying Russian natural gas to Europe pass through Ukraine, so cutoffs in energy supplies to Ukraine will spill over to damage European economies.

Some energy experts have suggested that the European Union should help Ukraine develop its own domestic fossil fuel production, including shale oil gas.

As we have seen in the United States, shale oil fields cause widespread environmental damage, not only in the oil fields themselves but in explosions and fires from rail car derailments and pipeline spills that have contaminated rivers and groundwater.

Others have suggested that the U.S. government should ease regulations on the exportation of liquid natural gas and crude oil to Ukraine.

But these measures are only temporary fixes and won’t solve the root cause of Ukraine’s geopolitical problem: energy dependence on another country.

We in the United States have seen that movie before with Arab oil embargoes and two Gulf wars. Domestically produced renewable fuels are preventing a sequel to those sad episodes in our nation’s history.

The only real way for Ukraine to defend its sovereignty is to just say “no” to its addiction to Russia’s oil.

Who knows, someday the Russians may become customers of Ukraine’s renewable energy sector when Russia’s petroleum reserves run out, as they inevitably will.

Jerry Perkins of Des Moines, IA is editor of BioFuels Journal, (www.biofuelsjournal.com), where this column first appeared. Contact: jerry@grainnet.com.

more TOP STORIES...