For decades, the United States has been painfully reminded – during peace and war – of how dependent we are upon foreign oil.
We produce a lot of oil, but we also needlessly forbid safe, clean drilling for much of our oil because of often bogus environmental concerns. So we are still big importers of oil – and thus are affected adversely by foreign price-setters and production disruptions.
Now Libya, a distant oil producer in North Africa, is experiencing violent internal disruption, and its troubles have pushed oil prices to more than $100 a barrel, as of this writing. We Americans are paying $108 million more a day for the same amount of gasoline – because of our lack of energy independence.
Why don’t we use more of our oil?