Gilbert Gutknecht: “We have not had a very coordinated energy policy in this country for the last 10 years. It really is time that we have…”

“We have not had a very coordinated energy policy in this country for the last 10 years. It really is time that we have one. According to the numbers we have from the United States Department of Energy, the U.S. imported more than 8.9 million barrels of crude oil per day in the year 2000. That represents over 60 percent of our domestic crude oil demand. Now that is a scary number, but it gets worse. We are currently importing in excess of 613,000 barrels a day from Iraq. Now in case it has been forgotten, Iraq is the place where Saddam Hussein calls home. We are importing over 600,000 barrels a day every day from Saddam Hussein. At $25 a barrel, that is a lot of money. Supposedly that money is now being used for food and medical supplies, humanitarian concerns, but the truth of the matter, of course, is we cannot know exactly how Saddam Hussein spends that money. The California waiver decision decreases our dependence on foreign oil and increases demand for clean-burning, domestically-produced ethanol.”