Pickens: We’re still ‘dangerously dependent’ on OPEC
Politico gathered some of the nation’s most influential players in the energy and national-security realms to discuss what we should do next about the sudden drop in global oil prices the past four months.
Among the heavy hitters are Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability at UC Davis (and a star of PUMP, the movie); environmentalist Bill McKibben; and geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer. But possibly the starkest commentary comes from magnate T. Boone Pickens, founder and chair of BP Capital. His entry in the roundtable is called “A False Sense of Energy Security,” and here’s an excerpt:
The key for America is that we shouldn’t let ourselves get distracted by falling oil prices when there is much more at stake. For decades, our dependence on OPEC oil has dictated our national security decisions and tied us up in the Middle East at an incredible price. We’ve spent more than $5 trillion and thousands of American soldiers have died securing Middle East oil. … it is critical that we not let ourselves lose sight of the problem and continue expanding American energy production. We have OPEC on the run, but we are still dangerously dependent. We have the domestic resources, but we need to demand that Washington get serious about a national energy plan that takes the real costs of energy into account. We cannot get sidetracked by a false sense of enhanced energy security and lower gasoline prices.
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