Regaining energy leverage

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As Iran marches forward in an apparent attempt to develop nuclear weapons, the world faces a dilemma. Absent military strikes, which could help entrench a radical regime in power and might only delay an Iranian bomb, sweeping sanctions offer the best chance of changing Iran's behavior.

Such sanctions -- to be serious -- must involve not only pistachios, rugs and travel by Iranian leaders happy to stay home, but the oil exports on which Iran's economy depends.

Yet far from being a sword the world community can brandish against a recalcitrant Iran, oil is a shield Iran can use to protect itself. Analysts predict interruption in Iranian crude to world markets would send oil prices to more than $100 per barrel, weakening the resolve of governments around the world to take on the security challenge of Iran's nuclear ambitions.

This is unacceptable. Three decades after the first oil shocks -- and a quarter-century after the humiliating capture of U.S. diplomats in Tehran -- the world community remains hostage to its continuing dependence on Mideast oil. Tough-talking leaders are unable to match words with action because the hard work of reducing our oil dependence remains undone.

More than ever, the world needs an energy cushion that will allow it to consider sanctions against a major oil-exporting country such as Iran that so flagrantly defies the international community. Such a cushion is also needed to prevent political instability on the Arabian Peninsula or terrorist attacks on major oil fields from leading quickly to full-scale global crisis. We are taking a foolish and unnecessary risk by remaining so dependent on every drop of oil pumped that the global economy shudders and political leaders tremble the moment any major source is threatened.

This vulnerability is not new. But today our ability to overcome it is better than at any time in decades, for three reasons.

(1) We have a model of success: Brazil. While the United States dithered for much of the last quarter-century, pursuing ineffective and inconsistent energy security policies, Brazil set out to reduce dependence on foreign oil in part by harnessing its agricultural wealth. Starting in the 1970s, vast sugar plantations were devoted to producing ethanol, a homegrown liquid fuel. The Brazil stuck with the program through several setbacks and today is essentially independent of foreign oil.

True, Brazil is blessed with a favorable climate for biofuels. But the real lesson is that determination and resolve pay off. In the United States, wildly fluctuating budgets for energy research have choked progress on biofuels that could increase rural incomes while enhancing national security.

Building on the Brazilian experience, the U.S. government should immediately launch a crash program to develop advanced or "cellulosic" ethanol made from switchgrass, poplar and other nonfood crops. Technology breakthroughs in the last decade have made this even more practical than before.

Cities should launch community biodiesel programs, collecting waste oils to produce liquid fuel. Such steps could also help transform global agricultural, reducing the need for the traditional farm subsidies in the West and providing developing countries' farmers more market opportunities.