The Et Cetera Post

Lately President Bush has been talking about reducing American dependence on foreign oil by drilling offshore for it. But what’s the keyword in the phrase “reduce our dependence on foreign oil”? If you’re an oil tycoon like the president, your answer would be “oil”–as in, we need to go get more of it. The actual keyword there though is “reduce”. That’s right, if you want to reduce your dependence on foreign oil, why not reduce the amount of oil you use in the first place?

America guzzles oil by the millions of barrels. If you think about it, at some point this will not be able to continue whether or not you believe in “peak oil theory”. There are things that can be done right away to move in the right direction. Instead the Bush administration has opposed raising the fuel efficiency standards for automakers. That right there is one solid step in the right direction. But no, it seems that the only solution they can see is the one that’s most profitable for their oil buddies, go and drill for more. More money for them, same problem for us.