Gal Luft writes:

For the U.S. economy, oil dependence is a double whammy. While it contributes to our economic decline, it allows OPEC governments, many of which do not have our best interests in mind, not only to laugh all the way to the bank but to literally own the bank. The recent buyout by foreign governments of chunks of America’s prime symbols of economic prowess — like Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Blackstone Group and Bear Stearns — is only the preview to what is yet to come should the petrodollar fueled transfer of wealth continue.To understand the forces at play it is instructive to visualize the scale of OPEC’s potential wealth in comparison to that of the consuming countries. At $100 a barrel, OPEC’s oil assets stand at roughly $92 trillion, equivalent to almost half of the world’s total financial assets and nearly twice the market capitalization of all the companies traded in the world’s 27 top stock markets. If one adds the worth of OPEC’s huge gas reserves as well as additional oil reserves that have not yet been discovered, the wealth of OPEC more than doubles. …OPEC’s monumental wealth enables its countries unprecedented buying power. As an illustration, at current oil prices it would take OPEC just six days to buy GM and three years to buy a 20 percent voting block in every S&P 500 company. It is hard to see how such buying power amassed by oil producers would not upset the West’s economic and political sovereignty. …

So what’s the solution? Gal continues:

Since stopping foreign investors from providing cash infusions for big companies in distress is not an option, the only way to stop the bleeding is for the United States and other major consumers to break the strategic stronghold of oil over our transportation system. Congressional leaders can start doing so by mandating that every new car sold in the United States is capable of running on — in addition to gasoline — nonpetroleum fuels like alcohols, coal-based fuels and electricity made from domestic resources.

You have a better idea?