[Darksheare]

However, we increased our dependence on foreign oil over the past eight years all while the leadership pretended to want to reduce same.
Reducing that dependence disincentivises OPEC pulling another oil embargo as such a move would have much less impact.
Also, reducing domestic energy costs either for home heating or vehicles would take some edge off our crappy economic situation.

[thackney]

we increased our dependence on foreign oil over the past eight years

Not at all.

Looking only at crude oil imports, we reduced our imports by 23% from 10.1 mmbpd to 7.8 mmpbd.

4-Week Avg U.S. Imports of Crude Oil
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WCRIMUS2&f=4

But the reduction in our total NET petroleum imports and exports, counting products as well as crude oil, the reduction is massive.

61% reduction in net, from 11.2 mmbpd down to 4.3 mmbpd.

U.S. Net Imports of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MTTNTUS2&f=M