The phrase “America’s dependency on foreign oil” bothers me. Who decided to make America dependent on imported oil? Was there a referendum I missed somehow? It seems to me that the oil companies themselves, with their partners or subsidiaries in oil-producing nations, were the ones who decided to import oil to meet America’s insatiable demand. The media use the dependency phrase as if it’s a universally agreed upon bad thing. Why is that? The oil companies are posting tens of billions of dollars in profits. Buy stock!
Crude oil is a finite resource. Mother Nature isn’t making any more of it. Isn’t it smarter to use up other nations’ oil first and save ours for when the foreign supplies dry up? Shoot, let’s import more oil!
Does importing most of our oil leave us vulnerable to foreign governments blackmailing us with threats to cut off our supply? The Bush administration has shown us the answer to that. All our government need do is make up excuses to invade and let politically connected companies just take the oil.
Of course there will need to be better planning ahead of time, e.g. what to do about insurgents who blow up pipelines and wells.
Americans should keep driving happily, secure in the knowledge that we’re helping other nations run out of oil first.
