By Larry Marsh, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist 2009

The world oil market is like a giant tank of oil. Canada and Mexico are just two spigots. Our national security does not depend on which spigots we're using, but on the price we are willing to pay for oil.

Oil is fungible. It's essentially the same stuff no matter where we get it from. It doesn't matter whether the spigots we use are friendly or unfriendly. It's basically the same oil either way.

Let's say that all the oil entering the United States came from our friends in Canada and Mexico. Would that make us safer? What would happen if certain unnamed "evil" countries suddenly stop supplying oil to the world market? Oil would still be available, but just at a much higher price. World demand would drop somewhat in response to that much higher price. Other suppliers of oil would try to pump extra oil until supply and demand were in equilibrium once again, but at a higher price.

Would Canada and Mexico keep their prices low to accommodate their good friend, the United States? How would they justify that to their citizens? Are they going to be willing to forfeit some of their money so that we can keep more of ours?

If we really want "energy independence" then we need to bring the price of oil down by reducing our demand for it. The real problem is that we are currently pouring money into the coffers of petro-dictatorships around the world by purchasing large quantities of oil at high prices.

Our national security will best be served by coming up with home-grown alternative sources of energy that are not so fungible, such as nuclear, solar, wind and new (as yet unknown) sources of energy while greatly improving our energy efficiency.

France is now getting 80 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power. Brazil has virtually all of its vehicles running on E85 which means that 85 per cent of its fuel is ethanol produced from sugar cane. Denmark has recently become energy independent by investing heavily in wind power.

Ultimately we need to develop alternatives so we can buy less oil at lower prices.

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Also see:

Carbon tax better than trying to pick alternative energy winner

A Gas Plan for Congress: A dynamic self-adjusting price floor for gasoline

Deprive petro-dictators of oil money with a price floor on crude oil imports

Law professors propose new gas tax with categorical tax rebates

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