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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (2513)	9/19/2008 4:18:28 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 86356

For once I have to agree with you. Don't strain yourself. If the US produced enough oil to meet the US's own demands, the price for that oil would still go up, if a major world source gets blocked. It wouldn't effect our balance of payments much, because the extra price would be paid to Americans, but concern about oil as a strategic resource isn't exactly focused on balance of payments issues. Other economies depend far less on oil, and would also follow our lead on improving MPG efficiency (in fact they are leading us). I don't think we would use the same level of military force to protect their oil. Listen, oil is the ultimate economic WMD. It's (almost) as if a bunch of ME countries, Russia and Venezuela had nukes and we didn't. Think of the economic burden, and threat, that would be lifted if we could mostly get off imported oil. It doesn't have to be 100%, say we still import 10% of our oil... that would be OK. But 70% is costly now and dangerous tomorrow. I sincerely believe the benefits would greatly outweigh the costs... 5% a year reduction in consumption, we should be able to do that with our eyes closed.