the opinionist

President Bush shall address a hostile Democratic-controlled Congress tonight in his State of the Union address and will urge the nation to slash gasoline consumption by 20 percent within the next 10 years.

The reduction is to be achieved by the increased use of ethanol-derived fuel products (15% of the reduction) and improvements in car mileage (85%).

This is certainly good news but critics will (if not already) unleash their public-relations hound-dogs with calls of ‘not enough’ and ‘no answer to middle-east dependency’.

The crude oil roller coaster has seen the price of oil rocket from just over $30 a barrel in 2000 to a crushing $78 a few months ago and a plummet back to $50 in recent weeks … and the implications for the U.S. economy are still cloudy.

The political ramifications of the U.S.’s ‘addiction to oil’ as described by President Bush in last year’s State of the Union address are enormous.

What people don’t realize is the U.S. is already significantly less dependent on OPEC oil producers - and whilst we are ‘addicted’ to oil like Lindsay Lohan is to Red Bull - at least our ‘oil/crack’ dealers are, for the most part, USA-friendly and our national security interests.

OPEC - the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries - has 12 member countries that include some of the world’s most insipid anti-American Middle-Eastern nations:
- Angola
- Iran
- Libya
- Nigeria
- Venezuela

And other member countries with mixed feelings to the U.S. to say the least:
- Algeria
- Indonesia
- Iraq
- Kuwait
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- United Arab Emirates

What is both surprising and reassuring is that the U.S. is less dependent on OPEC oil exporters - and as such perhaps the U.S.’s economy is less sensitive to Middle Eastern influence than before?

If you peruse the terrifically information U.S. Energy Information Administration - you can truly get your hands dirty with a plethora of sexy analytical tools.

I created these charts using the data from the U.S. EIA.

What is a red flag - as mentioned consistently (to the defense of) by President Bush - is our lack of refinery capacity! As the nation’s demand for refined - car-capable - gasoline has spiked - our nation’s refineries have simply not kept up with demand - so we’ve had to import considerably more refined gasoline from overseas.

This has national security implications and perhaps President Bush’s call for reduced consumption on gasoline will go someway to alleviating this supply problem.

Whilst the rest of the State of the Union address tonight might be more of the same partisan back stabbing … at least we can sleep slightly better at night knowing those OPEC fellas - including Venezuela’s el Presidente Hugo Chávez and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cannot blackmail the U.S. with the oil embargoes of Carter’s 1970’s.

Posted on January 23rd, 2007 under Ahmadinejad, Bush, Chávez, Iran, OPEC, State of the Union, Venezuela, gasoline, oil •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback