The Blog @ Spolitics

We Are Not Addicted to Oil Anymore Than We Are “Addicted” to Food

What exactly are the benefits of being addicted to crack? To hear Thomas Friedman tell it, you’d think there were a lot. After all, he compared our oil use to an “addition” to crack. Of course, crack doesn’t provide nutrition to the body whereas oil is the lifeblood of our economy. Oil isn’t our crack, it’s our food. With the current options out there, to say we should give up oil is the same as saying we should all just go hungry.

Friedman goes on to list all the reasons why we need to break our dependence on oil but most of which have to do with foreign oil. Yet he maintains drilling domestically won’t help at all on that front. Instead, he promotes the same tax and spend policies the Democrats have been promoting since Carter. Why must everything include another tax with these people? Here’s an idea: sell the offshore leases to the oil companies and then use that money to fund alternative energy. Use oil as a bridge to alternatives.

Lastly, Friedman praises Gore’s energy plan without pointing out the fact that if we take the steps Gore wants us to take, it will make him incredibly rich. Since when did a man peddling his own economic interests become the height of morality? We’re supposed to swallow the claim that we can’t believe anything Exxon says because they’re just trying to make a profit. Well, the same is true for Al Gore. The difference between the two is Exxon produces the fuel that runs our economy and Al Gore just produces a lot of hot air. And so — based on his recent article — does Thomas Friedman.