This week T. Boone Pickens announced a new program that will report our monthly foreign oil purchases. This is a great way to focus our attention on this vital problem by using real numbers to track progress in reducing imports. We can set goals and then meet our objectives.
How significant is our oil dependence? The numbers are staggering:
- Spending nearly $20 billion on 380 million barrels in December 2008
- We spent approximately $475 billion on imported oil in all of 2008
- Every minute we send $432,000 overseas to feed our addiction
The transfer of wealth is wrecking our economy while foreign countries realize the benefits. This is taking money away from our domestic programs at a critical time. Wouldn’t you rather see this money spent on roads, schools and government projects here in the United States?
Last July, Pickens unveiled a plan to increase the use of wind power and natural gas to cut U.S. dependency on foreign oil. This would create millions of jobs building out our wind capacity and upgrading our national electric grid. All of this would have a very positive effect on our economy.
Developing oil alternatives is just one half of the puzzle with the other half being conservation. Gradually changing our sources of energy would be nicely complimented by all of us just consuming less. Attacking this problem from both sides will result in dramatic reductions of imports. I look forward to getting these monthly updates as a yardstick to measure our progress. Will you be watching?
