Foreign Oil Independence

From several quarters, the call for a policy and commitment of resources that will lead toward less reliance on imported oil. Congress passed and the President signed a new energy policy bill that goes in that direction, but it's not being touted as a national priority. Of course, recent events have overshadowed that step, but once the crisis spike of Katrina has passed, the energy issue should be brought forward again. I'm surprised the Democrats have not proposed this issue as 'front and center.'

This from Mario Gabelli of Gabelli Funds.

"Much of our imported oil is purchased from the Saudis, about 1.5 million barrels of oil per day. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded on an 18th century alliance between the Wahhabi religious movement - an extremely strict Muslim faction - and the House of Saud, which has ruled Saudi Arabia since the 1930s. The Wahhabi movement is a rigidly exacting interpretation of Islam, far more inflexible than Sunni or Shiite Islam. It is the Wahhabis - to whom millions in oil dollars are funneled - who fund the religious madrassas that teach virulently anti-American, anti-Western thoughts and ideas. It has been announced that at least two of the London subway and bus suicide bombers recently attended Wahhabi-funded madrassas in Pakistan. Our oil dollars pay for this, there are few voices arguing that American purchases of Saudi oil are not in the national interest.

What the U.S. needs now is an intense focus to reduce its dependency on oil. In the 1940s it was the Manhattan Project that led to the discovery, building, and use of a nuclear weapon in six years. In 1957, the Soviet launch of Sputnik I led to the creation of NASA the following year; and when Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the earth in 1961, the U.S. responded just 8 years later by landing men on the moon - and bringing them back again. This is the sort of concentrated, rapid pace focus needed now to reduce American dependence on oil. This has many facets - reducing American dependence on foreign oil, improving auto and truck and airplane efficiency, developing alternate sources of energy and other fuel conservation efforts."