Political Quotes

“recent disruption in oil supply has created problems with heating oil prices, costs to truckers for their diesel fuel, and increased gasoline prices. The response and the proposed solutions have ranged from the ridiculous to the absurd, even the destructive. Most reasonable people agree that the United States cannot always have unlimited supply of oil at the lowest cost in the developed world. Such assumptions are not just wrong headed, they are impossible to maintain and they encourage behaviors that are costly to the American public. We are, as a Nation, addicted to cheap oil. It skews our policy in the Mideast; discourages development of alternative fuels and energy conservation. It encourages waste, pollution and the negative side effects of our exclusive reliance on the automobile for personal transportation. It also makes us much more vulnerable to disruption in oil supply and price whether by natural market forces, unintended disaster or unfriendly policies from OPEC nations. It is important for us to acknowledge that the United States consumes three times as much fuel per capita as any other developed country. Just 5 percent of the world's population of the United States consumes over a quarter of the world's oil supply, equivalent to Western Europe and Japan combined.”