Say Anything Blog

The White House has asked OPEC to consider the U.S. economy when making decisions about its oil supplies.

From Yahoo News:

"It's important for producers not to take actions that hurt our economy. We believe oil prices should be set by market forces in order to make sure that we have adequate supplies available," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters after OPEC's decision.

McClellan said President Bush remained "concerned" about record-high gasoline prices. He said the administration, which had pressed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to lift export restrictions to help control U.S. pump prices, "remained engaged in close discussion with major producers from around the world to discuss our views regarding market conditions."

I'd really, really like to see our country free itself from its dependence on OPEC oil. A new energy supply aside from Oil would be nice, but sending OPEC down the road would be a nice first step.

I hate the fact that our country has to depend on those price-fixing jerks for our oil supplies. What I don't understand is why we don't put time into developing our own oil reserves. We should drill in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge and in the Caribbean Sea in order to diminish our demand on OPEC.

If we cut down on the amount of oil we buy from OPEC their prices would come down in a hurry. Our country buys more oil from OPEC than any other nation. If we were able to cut that number in half it wouldn't be like OPEC would find a new customer to sell that oil to. Who else is out there? France? Russia? France doesn't consume nearly as much oil as America does and Russia has its own oil supplies.

If we were to develop some reliable oil supplies within our own country it would give us some price leverage against OPEC while we develop some alternative energy sources.