Ever since Nixon declared the goal of freeing ourselves from foreign oil, and the ideal of “energy independence” in 1974, it has become one thing both sides of the political aisle agree on.   (Lately, the only thing.)  And it does sound like a noble goal.  It is easy to sit back in your armchair and declare  to yourself, “You know, we should be independent of foreign oil.  I totally agree.  Maybe we do need to drill more off our coasts.If you did think that, you would not be alone..  Every president, and every major presidential candidate since Nixon, has campaigned on that promise.  So why hasn’t it happened? 

Simple.It hasn’t happened for the same reason none of you have found the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow…Because it doesn’t exist.  What no one wants to admit, because it is a real problem with complex solutions, is: once the oil is out of the ground, it ceases to belong to any country.  The oil we buy is not distinguishable from any other oil.  Why?  Because it is all sold in the same place.  All oil sold internationally in the world is sold in the same way.  Once it is out of the ground, it is sold on the international marketplace.  And if you decide, “You know I have a commodities account, I would like to buy my very own barrel of oil.” (Which would make you a single man living in a hut.) When you get your barrel, no where will it say where it came from.  

So why is this important?  I’ll tell you.   The problem is not foreign oil; it is oil.  Even if we open up ANWAR and drill off of every inch of coastline our country possesses, we will not be able to “free ourselves from foreign oil” because that new supply will sell at the same place all the existing supply sells at: the international oil market.  This market, (like all true markets) operates by the laws of supply and demand.  That being said, if we did retrieve every drop of oil we could out of every square inch of land, the price may go down by one or two percent.  However, as many experts have pointed out, we could achieve the same, or better, price savings by driving cars with an average fuel efficiency of 35 miles per gallon.

My point is this:  As far as oil is concerned, there is no independence!  So, that being the case, why are we drilling in locations so complex that we have absolutely no clue what to do when something goes wrong.    If it all goes to the same marketplace, why don’t we do what is in the best interests of our country and drill in the safest places we can, and do what we can to develop new technologies that reduce our need for oil.

If you truly want to be energy independent, then we need to support all of the local clean energy solutions like: solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, hydroelectric, methane powered energy plants, biomass, bio-diesel, and many more.   At the same time, we need to ramp up our energy conservation measures, to reduce our need for energy of all kinds.  We also need to push our government toward continued clean energy investment.  I’m not naive.  Oil will be a part of our world for a long time, but if you truly want to be independent, then lets create our own industries that employ millions, leave the world cleaner, and actually offer solutions, rather than empty promises.