The Savage Republican

I've written many posts on why Coleen Rowley is wrong for the second district and will continue to do so up until the November election. This one is about her stand on gas prices as listed on her "Issues" statement on Energy Independence.

"As long as we depend on Middle Eastern oil, we will be involved in Middle Eastern conflicts and invite the wrath of terrorists everywhere. As long as we are held hostage at the gas pump, our economic growth will be less and less guaranteed. As long as we must drill deeper into habitats to sustain our growing energy needs, we will continue to deface many of the remaining pristine areas we share."

The above paragraph is full of contradictory statements. Coleen wants us to be independent of "Middle Eastern oil" (more on that in a minute) but she does not want us to drill our own oil. She laments that we are "held hostage at the gas pump" (true statement) but wants to keep pristine areas pristine..... Regarding dependence on Middle Eastern oil, Coleen has a problem The US gets a majority of it's oil from North and South America! As a matter of fact, of the top 15 sources of US oil, Middle Eastern sources make up 12% of oil demand (per the chart below):

Crude Oil Imports (Top 15 Countries)(Thousand Barrels per Day)
Country Apr-06 Mar-06 YTD 2006 Apr-05 Jan - Apr 2005
CANADA 1,710 1,716 1,726 1,676 1,551
MEXICO 1,601 1,697 1,692 1,541 1,510
SAUDI
ARABIA 1,582 1,322 1,413 1,449 1,533
VENEZUELA 1,171 1,183 1,190 1,391 1,352
NIGERIA 1,022 1,114 1,149 1,130 1,030
IRAQ 531 476 498 542 522
ANGOLA 389 510 446 365 461
ECUADOR 312 242 289 240 302
ALGERIA 256 281 235 232 182
KUWAIT 225 111 139 164 179
UNITED KINGDOM 169 145 108 256 225
COLOMBIA 149 170 154 183 128
BRAZIL 111 123 114 36 38
CHAD 82 84 79 75 74
TRINIDAD/TOBAGO 80 52 63 87 64

Note: The data in the tables above exclude oil imports into the U.S. territories.

Our involvement in Middle Eastern conflicts has nothing to do with oil. Even if we cut off all Middle Eastern oil needs today, we would still be involved in conflicts in the Middle East. Because as long as there are people in the Middle East who refuse to accept Israels right to exist, there will be conflict in the Middle East! Oil has nothing to do with the conflict - IDEOLOGY does. Until Coleen addresses the ideology, she will have no idea how to handle the situation and if she has no idea how to handle the situation, she is the wrong person for the job of US Congressman.