'Oil Change,' a major investigation into US energy security

May 9, 2013

Global Post

Medill reporters launch 'Oil Change,' a major investigation into US energy security.

The three-month international project by Northwestern University's Medill National Security Journalism Initiative explores massive US investment to secure access to oil, points of weakness and untapped possibilities.

The United States’ unquenchable thirst for oil has shaped nearly every aspect of the country’s domestic and foreign policy for more than five decades: from the sometimes controversial relationships it forms with other countries to the hugely expensive deployment of military troops and ships.

Energy and national security scholar Roger Stern estimates that since 1976, the United States has spent more than $7.3 trillion dollars just to maintain a security presence in the Persian Gulf. It does so, in part, to secure access to the region’s rich oil stores by protecting friendly governments and oil tankers as they pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow sea lane and one of the world’s many energy choke points.

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