Because you are stating that we aren't going to need to build any refineries for a long time. I disagree. Running at 95% capacity is not sustainable unless nothing ever goes wrong and you never have to shut one down for maintenence. We are a first world country, and yet we are not even close to energy independence. On top of that, we are running close to 100% capacity at any time. That's not sound energy policy.
Re usage going back to 1950 I'd be willing to agree with you that 95% is not sustainable, if you'd agree with me that it can continue to be "unsustainable" indefinitely.
...we are not even close to energy independence.
If energy independence is really that important to you, then you can be as independent as you want so long as you do it with your own money and not through some kind of goofy federal energy policy. Like, America is not coffee independent either, and since the percentage of imported coffee is even higher than the percent of imported oil, how about we first have a sound coffee policy. Then maybe we can talk about our foreign chocolate and banana dependence too.
Don't forget molybdenum. How about caviar! Then all those chopsticks too..
