redrider wrote:
lxor wrote:
If we want to stop all these bastards, we need to displace their energy products.
I'll ignore all the rest of your Sean Hannity/Ezra Levant bullshit because it's all rhetoric and buzz words, but the above quote is what I was getting at initially. You'll have to elaborate on that "displace their energy products" a bit. Energy is a globally traded commodity, controlled mostly by OPEC. If the US were to flood the market, OPEC would shut the tap to keep supply in check. Their sole purpose is to control supply/prices. Sanctions against individual countries are what hurts the most, not "energy independence" or a pipeline.
If you're really concerned about national security, do some research into the business dealings between Halliburton/Dick Cheney and these so-called "enemies" of ours. Sanctions don't apply to Halliburton apparently.
Hey I like Ezra Levant, Sean Hannity not so much, but ignoring your - in my opinion - inaccurate insult i'll continue.
OPEC does not have control of oil prices anymore, not like in the past. Saudi Arabia has some control still but not a huge amount.
The reason the Saudis are producing at 100% is because they want to hurt Iran, and they are hurting Iran as well as Russia.
OPEC countries cannot shut off the supply anymore because their economies have become very dependent on the revenue the Oil brings, any significant drop in the world oil prices and they go into deficits.
By shutting off production they would be shooting themselves in the foot and helping every other producer.
The sanctions US had against Iran were very effective and were really hurting Iran, and then the Obama administration relaxed them in a desperate and naive hope to get any kind of deal from Iran on the nuclear weapons program.
So now Iranians are playing games and continuing to develop nuclear weapons.
Energy independence for US means that they will never have to send their military to the middle east to protect middle eastern oil.
Being a net producer of oil and gas means that we - the western democratic countries - would start to deny energy revenue to all kinds evil regimes around the world.
The problem we currently have is that we cannot transport enough of our energy into the world markets. In Canada's case even to other provinces. Rail is helping though.
I am also very hopeful we can rapidly develop new technologies to displace oil and gas. If we had even 5% electric cars this would have major effect of world oil prices.
Natural gas powered cars and transport vehicles will likewise have a significant impact. Natural gas in the near future will become a major transportation fuel.
I newer defended Halliburton, whatever they did, but best way to control powerful interests is to introduce competition to them and in so doing lessen their power.