Unrest among the populace runs rampant in the Middle East. Who will lead Egypt is in question; the state of the Saudi Arabian people is not a happy one. Unrest in Yemen, Bahrain and Iran threatens the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian warships sail towards the Suez Canal. What if the Muslim Brotherhood should control Egypt, thus having control of the Suez?
No, uncertainty in this part of the world is nothing new, even though the current state of affairs may be above the norm. Our political leaders have talked about freeing ourselves from our reliance on imported oil from these areas, but for decades political differences and the Environmental Protection Agency have combined to strangle any hope of establishing a true national approach to becoming energy self-sufficient.
The Obama administration has only given lip service to nuclear energy and further development of natural gas, coal and pursuit of oil from shale. While this does not so much deviate from actions of some past administrations, lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling certainly does and points us in the wrong direction. Fossil fuel not only feeds our transportation needs but is a part of the clothes we wear and the plastic containers that hold the everyday products we use.
Electric cars? Green energy? Yes, all areas we need to pursue, but it will be decades, if ever, before these pursuits would free us from the need for imported oil. The rest of the world continues to drill for oil — why not us? Ending the moratorium and an all-out drive toward energy independence would create millions of new jobs and be a clear path for building our future. Given the current turmoil, what better time to urgently move in the right direction?
— Tony Blasco, Lemont
