Friday, April 7 2006 14:32 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Houston(US): America could end the need to import fossil fuels from the Persian Gulf region by 2020, says a new study.

The 'Towards Energy Independence in 2025' study details immediate and long-term measures that, if applied to the US transportation sector and fleet of power plants, could reduce its oil imports by more than 30 per cent within twenty years.

These measures could deliver daily oil use savings of more than 22 per cent - equivalent to the 6.3 million barrels a day America currently imports from the Persian Gulf, said Daniel M Kammen and his colleagues at UC Berkeley's Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL).

The transportation sector accounts for over 70 per cent of US oil use.

The study's recommendations include increased fuel economy standards, the use of biofuels, a major push to make plug-in hybrid vehicles which run on gasoline or preferably cellulosic ethanol as back-up and a general expansion of the use of hybrid vehicles.

If pursued aggressively and consistently, these currently available and near-term technologies and policies could make possible even larger oil use savings than the study projects, Kammen said.

The RAEL study was funded by a grant from Americans for Energy Independence, a non-profit group dedicated to raising awareness of the consequences of and solutions to US reliance on imported oil.

"We spend over US$ 240 billion a year on foreign oil," group president Chris Wolfe said.