By DemocracyRules
The US used to be independent in oil. Japan declared war on America because the US stopped exporting oil to Japan (their gratuitous wars and genocide in Asia were getting a bit much).
The US will probably regain energy independence in the future because of rapidly appearing technologies. And what if the US began a Manhattan Project-type initiative to make this happen within 10 years – what then? Well, the US would be like what Canada is now.
Canada has enormous oil reserves, 7 times larger than Saudi Arabia. We are the largest supplier of oil to the US, and we are now doubling our capacity. Our biggest problem is getting it out of the ground fast enough. Selling it now is vital because petroleum could become obsolete within a century. Canada has huge coal reserves which go un-mined because coal is no longer a preferred fuel, and the price is too low to mine it. We don’t want that to happen with oil, where we could have huge reserves in situ that no one wants.
Having all that oil does produce benefits. What the Saudis do, or think, or want, well we couldn’t care less. If Iran stopped pumping oil, big deal. It would actually help us, because world oil prices would rise, and we would benefit. Chavez is an ugly strutting tin-pot dictator, but he is not a strategic threat to us. We have never had gasoline rationing or line-ups at pumps.
But our oil reserves solve fewer problems than you would think. Canadians fight and die in Afghanistan and pay close attention to the Middle East. We must, because the Middle East gets about $500 billion per year in oil revenue, and a lot of that is used to make trouble throughout the world. The Saudis pay for Canadian mosques, we have terrorists, horrible honor killings, arrogant Islamist immigrants, and frivolous ‘Islamic right to be rotten’ lawsuits etc., ad nauseam, just like the USA.
Like the US, we are ramping up our military, memorializing our war dead, and collaborating with other countries to fight Islamic terrorism.
Canadian drivers must also ride the international market price for gasoline through its ups and downs. We do not get a break on prices because we keep our domestic oil prices at world market value. Selling it cheaper domestically would create unmanageable distortions in the marketplace.
Just as the US does, Canadians worry about Iran’s shenanigans, Pakistan’s instability, Syria’s support for terrorism, Lebanon’s democracy, and Israel’s vulnerabilities, because these things threaten world peace.
Yes, the US should work to secure energy independence, but I do not think it will make a huge political or economic difference for America. Because of the rapidly expanding world economy and globalization, energy markets are very commingled with other markets. Middle Eastern countries can threaten to cut off oil supplies to the US, but they can’t actually do it for long, because their economies have become strongly interdependent with the global economy. When oil dropped to $11 per barrel in 1998-99, Saudi Arabia almost tanked. Without oil revenue, Saudi Arabia could not buy Western goods, their economy would collapse, and their King would not stay in power very long.
Americans are much stronger on the energy issue than they think.
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