Former CIA director R. James Woolsey wants to deal a “body blow” to Middle Eastern oil — or at least make it dull.

“We need to turn oil into salt,” Woolsey said in a campus talk on renewable energy and energy security.

A specialist on alternative energy and security issues, he spoke Jan. 22 at the Alumni and Visitors Center as part of the Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series in the Graduate School of Management.

As Woolsey explained, parallels exist between salt and oil. Until the 20th century, salt was a strategic and prized commodity. Its ability to preserve food, especially meats, was a pillar of civilization — not unlike oil today, which powers transportation systems globally. Back when salt was king, as late as the 1880s, nations went to war over salt mines.

But it all changed with the rise of refrigeration technology, he said. That singular development led to salt being used almost exclusively for seasoning — not civilization-building.

“We need to do that to oil as soon as possible. Make oil boring,” said Woolsey, CIA director from 1993 to 1995.

Beyond the CIA, Woolsey has worked as an attorney, U.S. Army officer, U.S. Senate counsel and negotiator in the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks. His resume includes numerous affiliations with boards, groups and committees in Washington, D.C. He is currently a partner in a Silicon Valley venture-capital fund that invests in renewable-energy companies. As GSM Dean Steven Currall put it while introducing his guest speaker, Woolsey is a “very, very busy man.”

‘Single-mindedly focused’

Woolsey acknowledges he is “single-mindedly-focused” on complex energy and national security issues. To simplify it all, he speculates about what the “ghosts” of John Muir, Gen. George Patton and Gandhi would say. In his mind, it seems Muir would have concerns about pollution and the environment, Patton about financing terrorism by buying Middle Eastern oil, and Gandhi about finding a locally self-sufficient energy source for people in all walks of life.

While differences might exist among these historical figures, common ground does too, he believes. Indeed, “you can’t just speak to one approach” and hope to bring about meaningful policy change on energy and security. Rather, a balance must be struck.

Woolsey is an advocate of more solar and wind power and waste-to-energy systems. He is less enthused about nuclear power, as the plants are costly (four times what natural gas plants cost) and susceptible to terrorist misuse. And, building nuclear plants does nothing to reduce American dependence on Middle Eastern oil — nuclear energy is not used as fuel for vehicles.

Woolsey believes that with the political instability in the Middle East — and the fact that almost all oil-producing countries are dictatorships — America must solve its “oil curse.”

Otherwise, Americans will continue to send money through oil profits to its terrorist enemies, said Woolsey, who described himself politically as a “Scoop Jackson Democrat” — conservative on foreign policy and liberal on domestic policy.

“Never since the Civil War has American financed both sides in a war,” he quipped. “This is not a sound strategy,” and the U.S. must “do something radical about oil.”

Natural gas, renewable energy

On pollution, Woolsey said coal-burning power plants, while offering abundant energy, also do the most harm to the environment. It is time to wean ourselves off coal by tilting toward a greater reliance on natural gas, a low-polluting energy source. Just using natural gas in all fleet vehicles and trucks would help cut emissions nationally.

“Natural gas is the best option,” Woolsey said.

As for energy grid security, the U.S. is in a vulnerable condition. He recalled the 2003 blackout where 50 million people in the Northeast and Canada lost power because a tree branch in Cleveland knocked out a power line. The problem is that many other systems in the web of life — water, sewage — depend on electricity to function.

“If the electrical system goes down,” he said, “all the other ones do, too. All three of my ghosts have big worries about electricity.”

Transportation crossroads

Another concern is the fuel used for transportation. Woolsey mentioned he has visited UC Davis before to meet with engineering professor Andrew Frank, who is an expert on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. This is the type of leading-edge thinking that could drive the world toward better energy sources, he added.

“These are not theories,” he said about programs like Frank’s. “These are programs and products coming into the marketplace if we organize them well.”

So much depends, Woolsey said, on finding new energy sources for vehicles. It could take a prohibitively long time to redraw a society built spatially around the automobile. But it would take far less time to install gadgets in cars that allow alternative energies to be used instead of oil, he believes.

“We need to change the fuel we drive (with),” Woolsey said.

More information: www.gsm.ucdavis.edu/woolsey.