The threat to America’s security posed by our foreign fuel addiction is real. What you pay at the pump is funding some very bad actors, as shown in the excellent but downright scary article on this subject by Steve Mufson in Saturday’s Washington Post.
If the headline alone isn’t enough to shake us out of our oil-fueled stupor (“Oil Price Rise Causes Global Shift in Wealth – Iran, Russia and Venezuela Feel the Benefits”) then read this :
“In the United States, the rising bill for imported petroleum lowers already anemic consumer savings rates, adds to inflation, worsens the trade deficit, undermines the dollar and makes it more difficult for the Federal Reserve to balance its competing goals of fighting inflation and sustaining growth. …
The benefits [of high oil prices], to the tune of $700 billion a year, are flowing to the world’s oil-exporting countries. Two of those nations – Iran and Venezuela — may be better able to defy the Bush administration because of swelling oil revenue. Venezuela has used its oil wealth to dispense patronage around South America, vying for influence even with longtime U.S. allies. And Iran could be less vulnerable to sanctions designed to pressure it into giving up its nuclear program or opening it to inspection.”
Look, we’re going to be using oil, including foreign oil, for years and years to come. But America has to develop new clean-energy technologies that make us less dependent on it. Cap-and-trade is a great market-based way to make those innovations reality.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 11:30 am and is filed under Alternative Energy Technology, Cap and Trade, International Environmental News, National Security, Oil and Gas . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 19th, 2007 at 10:12 am
On the mark - it’s time for us to wake-up.
I read this article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and pondered it all day.
What we do now will make a difference for our kids and grandchildren.