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What Would Real Energy Independence Look Like?
Hint: it would not involve oil
There’s nothing quite like oil.
On the one hand, we rely on the stuff. We’ve built a global economy on it; every single day, human beings use up more than 12 million tons of oil. It makes planes fly, it makes cars go, it keeps buildings warm, and it keeps the lights on. Oil isn’t just used for energy, either — it’s in your roof shingles, your clothing fibers, your toothbrush, your furniture, and your electronics.
On the other hand, oil has proven to be quite unreliable. In our capitalist world, commodities like oil are sold on the open market, meaning that their prices go up and down due to economic forces. But few other important commodities have prices that are anywhere near as volatile as the price of oil. One study found that oil prices were more volatile than 95% of domestically produced goods.
This means that, in the last 30 years, there have been times when a barrel of oil has cost $25 (adjusted for inflation), and there have been times when that same barrel of oil would have cost $180. And the changes often come head-spinningly fast: in 1973–74, oil prices almost quadrupled in the space of a few months.
Worse, the price of oil doesn’t just move around because of economic trends or simple supply and…
