We actually don't. Thanks to our shale industry, the U.S. is 100% energy independent and we are set for petroleum and natural gas for 100 years or more.
We shouldn't touch ours until the Middle East is "cleaned out."
Bad idea. A major reason for our growing economy is the incredible growth in shale drilling. Shutting it all down and allowing it to become dormant in order to drain oil reserves from the Middle East (at much higher cost) makes zero sense.
But in the day, when Ike took on the role of guarantor og Mid-East il, it was a terrific idea:
We’d use our already built military, get paid for doing it, we’d all benefit from dirt-cheap oil, and money would flow to a very poor area.
20 years later things had changed.
Amazing how many serious problems (thinking of China) are caused by mere policy momentum
In addition we have intellectual property invested in companies and people that would be lost in a generation. Then who would develop the oil and gas fields?
Bad idea. A major reason for our growing economy is the incredible growth in shale drilling. Shutting it all down and allowing it to become dormant in order to drain oil reserves from the Middle East (at much higher cost) makes zero sense.
You may be right.
I want welders and pipefitters employed in the USA, not Saudi Arabia.