[/quote]

Great in theory but their oil is cheaper. We can be 100% oil independent but fuel prices will be 50% higher.
[/quote]


Is that because we have to sell our oil on the global markets? Maybe our oil stays here instead. Shipping and speculators add a big cost. So if oil is so important, why not only sell what we don’t use? There are bigger things here involved, and that is profits. A couple years back the oil was so cheap it was being stored on huge tankers until the price rose. The US military keeps the price of oil cheap for the whole world. Let’s stop that for a while, and try a different plan maybe? Same way corporations go to China to make stuff and ship it back and the cost isn’t that much cheaper, but their profits are higher. And instead of a good job here, we cut our own workers out. That’s what this is really about. Materials and shipping and the like cost very similiar around the world. The USA is rare in that it has the natural resources that we can supply others. Why don’t we grow our own workers wealth? Drinking water is almost more than oil or gas. What’s to expensive is the USA taking care of the security for most of the world. We don’t ever price that in to the equation. And we should. Because it’s a cost to our country. Indirect costs are more than your 50% price increase. About 10-12 years ago gas was $4 plus a gallon. And then more producers got in the game. That’s how it works. [/quote]


I think you missed my point. Sweet crude is processed easier than say tar sands oil. We (USA) can produce enough oil for all us consumption with the caveat that Democrat Policy doesn’t further strangle the refineries. From a strictly business standpoint it sometimes makes more sense to import sweet crude for refining depending on the rates/futures. On the flip side when opec floods the market with cheap oil it makes us production come to a standstill because it cost more for them to get it out of the ground than they can sell it for. We all love cheap fuel but from a purely economic standpoint fuel prices at around $2.50/gallon makes us production more viable. This impacts the economy in multiple ways.

If we had an easier and more direct route to get oil to the refineries we could even be more efficient. From a pipeline standpoint we are very efficient from the Mississippi East but it can be improved upon. When those pipelines are running at full capacity it benefits everyone and is actually cheaper to move product. Those big pumps (5000hp) are at peak efficiency when they are not being throttled due to injection flow.