Without American white oak there would be no whiskey. Or very little of it.
American white oak has the perfect pore size for the staves of whiskey aging barrels. Fortunately for the rest of the world, the US has a law that forbids licensed distillers re-using whiskey aging barrels, and other countries are happy to buy our hand-me-downs. Scotch white oak is unsuitable for aging barrels so their whisky industry in particular is completely dependent on the American whiskey industry for its aging barrels. Same with the sherry and port industry in Spain & Portugal. All aged in American whiskey barrels.
So cutting down all the oaks would destroy the American whiskey industry, and cripple much of the rest of the world’s.