Dependence on foreign oil
Just to stir things up again
I am not sure I see why dependence on foreign oil is such a horrible thing to be avoided
From a strategic national security perspective we have the strategic petroleum reserve plus substantial oil production within the US already so its hard to make an argument that we would get overrun due to a lack of oil.
The other argument would be economic or that a foreign producer could pull the plug on production and it would collapse our economy.
First I don't see foreign producers stopping production as horribly realistic as they couldn't even sustain that during the 70's oil crisis.
Second suppose we produce all our fuel needs in the US. If a foreign producer shuts off production oil is still a world commodity and such a shutoff would send prices through the roof here as well even if we produced every drop within the US. And of course we cannot immunize ourselves from the effect on the world economy should production shut down elsewhere.
In addition what is the big deal about dependence on foreign oil specifically anyway?
We are dependent on foreign food, foreign microchips, foreign steel, foreign aluminum and every other conceivable raw material, foreign lumber, etc etc.
Its not as if oil is the only thing economically vital that we get from overseas.
Dependence on foreign oil strikes me as merely a slogan to enrich greedy farmers and greedy ethanol producers.
The only argument I can imagine that would be useful is that cutting off huge revenue streams to some of the nuttier oil producing countries would make them less of a threat but it seems to me we could take the money we are flushing down the toliet with these ethanol schemes etc and use it on something else that would do a better job of enhancing our security.
OK everyone freak all at once now
When posting on VMC boards all postings should have a symbol in the header and if foreign please post both US and Foreign symbols.
