OPEC announced today that it plans to slash a record 2.2 million barrels from its daily production. Russia, a major oil producer that is not part of the oil producers’ cartel, also intends to make major cuts.
In other words, they want us — oil consumers suffering through tough economic times — to pay them more. So they are reducing supply to boost prices.
Keep in mind that we’re talking about Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Russia — regimes that do not wish us well, regimes that seek to weaken or even destroy us, regimes that are not on our side in the war against Islamist terrorism.
We can shrug our shoulders and suck it up — or we can defend ourselves by taking measures to increase fuel supplies, to break oil’s monopoly, and to create in the near future a competitive transportation fuel market.
The goal should not be “energy independence.” The goal should be to strip oil of its “strategic value,” to make it a product we can live without. The goal is for us and our allies not to indefinitely depend on hostile regimes for the life’s blood of our economy. Surely, that’s a national security imperative.
My most recent column elaborates on this theme.