I am surprised that you don't argue for tariffs on cheap Saudi crude oil being dumped in the USA
Energy is vital to our economic health. Cheap wood is not.
And given that the Saudis can produce their oil for $1/barrel, as compared to the average $8-12/barrel in the west, tariffs could be justified except that it was US companies who developed those fields (later to have them stolen through nationalization). However, until we are generally self-sufficient, and not more dependent upon, imported oil, we don't have much leverage to negotiate with.
Tariffs exist so that what are considered vital domestic industries are not run out of business by cheap imports produced through governmental give-aways, or cheap labor. There ARE certain industries in the US that can be considered vital to maintaining our sovereignty, and one of those is oil. (I'm not going so far as to claim wood is a strategic commodity).
I'm a VERY BIG proponent of government subsidization of the energy sector. And just to spit in the eyes of PB and his no-nuke sister's, I personally would love to see ALL electricity in this nation produced through nuclear power production, preferably fusion should the technology advance to that point. And I would like to see those Nukes producing prodigious quantities of hydrogen to power fuel cell vehicles. Cheap power is ALSO critical to economic success, as was proven time and time again when the US built hydro-electric projects throughout the nation, including TVA.
OPEC, until recently, could set the price of oil to its whim. Only now are things turning against them as non-OPEC oil comes online, and the world enters recession. But there's no reason that US national security and foreign policy should be constantly threatened by our over dependence upon foreign sources of energy.
Hawk |
