We do NOT need energy independence
To the Editor:
The United States does NOT need energy independence. In fact, we should buy more of our energy from other countries and save our natural resources for a time when it becomes financially lucrative to tap into them safely.
The United States gets more than 40% of its total imports from only three countries: Canada, China, and Mexico. The top imported product from Canada is petroleum. The top imported product from Mexico is petroleum. Are any of the candidates this election season arguing that we should stop buying oil and gas from Canada and Mexico? Of course not. That’s because the United States is on friendly terms with Canada and Mexico and has been for well over a century. They send us their oil and we don’t have to send thousands of American soldiers there to protect the pipelines. The point is that we are more than willing to buy oil from our friends and we should continue to do so. Americans want cheap gas and when that gas comes from friendly countries we are happy to buy it.
The solution to our energy problem is to develop friendly relations with more countries in the world that can supply us with oil. There are plenty of countries around the world who produce energy much more cheaply than the United States can. If we adopted a policy of energy independence, we would end up raising the cost of oil and gas for American consumers. Our oil is simply more expensive because there is less of it and it is harder to extract. In addition, if we move toward non-petroleum energy sources, such as wind and solar, for a substantial portion of our energy needs, we will still end up paying more for energy because those technologies are not yet cost-effective compared to the relatively cheap oil from other countries. When other countries produce something more cheaply than we can, we should be happy to buy it from them. Oil is one of those products.
Businesses in the United States should focus on developing new products and new technologies. Then, we can sell these technologies to other countries for a large profit and use those profits to buy foreign oil. We can reduce our energy costs by expanding foreign trade—not by limiting it.
Currently, our top exports to Canada include vehicle parts, passenger cars, special purpose vehicles, industrial machines, engines, plastics, and electronics. Our top exports to Mexico are also electrical parts, vehicle parts, plastics, and computer accessories. Throughout history, countries that import raw materials and export manufactured products have seen more economic growth than countries that export raw materials. Countries that cut off lucrative trading partners suffer economic decline.
China is our second largest trading partner, behind Canada and ahead of Mexico. Petroleum is not traded between the U.S. and China. China sends us low-cost goods: computer accessories, household products, toys, computers, clothes, DVD players, and shoes. But we send to China high-end goods: semi-conductors, civilian aircraft, plastics, and industrial machines. And, with this trading relationship, nobody is suggesting that the U.S. has any security concerns over China like we do with North Korea and Iran. When we trade with other countries, we are better able to develop peaceful relations—not always easy, but peaceful.
So, we need to expand our imports of foreign oil from countries such as Russia, Iran, UAE, Venezuela, Nigeria, Algeria, Libya, and Angola. In the long run, it will be much cheaper to improve our trading relationship with these countries as we did with China. If we don’t, we’ll end up in another war like Iraq. We do NOT need energy independence—we need better trading relations with the countries who have the oil.
Daniel Rozmiarek
The United States does NOT need energy independence. In fact, we should buy more of our energy from other countries and save our natural resources for a time when it becomes financially lucrative to tap into them safely.
The United States gets more than 40% of its total imports from only three countries: Canada, China, and Mexico. The top imported product from Canada is petroleum. The top imported product from Mexico is petroleum. Are any of the candidates this election season arguing that we should stop buying oil and gas from Canada and Mexico? Of course not. That’s because the United States is on friendly terms with Canada and Mexico and has been for well over a century. They send us their oil and we don’t have to send thousands of American soldiers there to protect the pipelines. The point is that we are more than willing to buy oil from our friends and we should continue to do so. Americans want cheap gas and when that gas comes from friendly countries we are happy to buy it.
The solution to our energy problem is to develop friendly relations with more countries in the world that can supply us with oil. There are plenty of countries around the world who produce energy much more cheaply than the United States can. If we adopted a policy of energy independence, we would end up raising the cost of oil and gas for American consumers. Our oil is simply more expensive because there is less of it and it is harder to extract. In addition, if we move toward non-petroleum energy sources, such as wind and solar, for a substantial portion of our energy needs, we will still end up paying more for energy because those technologies are not yet cost-effective compared to the relatively cheap oil from other countries. When other countries produce something more cheaply than we can, we should be happy to buy it from them. Oil is one of those products.
Businesses in the United States should focus on developing new products and new technologies. Then, we can sell these technologies to other countries for a large profit and use those profits to buy foreign oil. We can reduce our energy costs by expanding foreign trade—not by limiting it.
Currently, our top exports to Canada include vehicle parts, passenger cars, special purpose vehicles, industrial machines, engines, plastics, and electronics. Our top exports to Mexico are also electrical parts, vehicle parts, plastics, and computer accessories. Throughout history, countries that import raw materials and export manufactured products have seen more economic growth than countries that export raw materials. Countries that cut off lucrative trading partners suffer economic decline.
China is our second largest trading partner, behind Canada and ahead of Mexico. Petroleum is not traded between the U.S. and China. China sends us low-cost goods: computer accessories, household products, toys, computers, clothes, DVD players, and shoes. But we send to China high-end goods: semi-conductors, civilian aircraft, plastics, and industrial machines. And, with this trading relationship, nobody is suggesting that the U.S. has any security concerns over China like we do with North Korea and Iran. When we trade with other countries, we are better able to develop peaceful relations—not always easy, but peaceful.
So, we need to expand our imports of foreign oil from countries such as Russia, Iran, UAE, Venezuela, Nigeria, Algeria, Libya, and Angola. In the long run, it will be much cheaper to improve our trading relationship with these countries as we did with China. If we don’t, we’ll end up in another war like Iraq. We do NOT need energy independence—we need better trading relations with the countries who have the oil.
Daniel Rozmiarek
posted by Daniel | 8:46 PM
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