The Hard Truth about Oil

[katty]

cont'd: http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/08/news/international/pluggedin_fortune/index.htm

The hard truth about oil
No matter what the president says, conservation is America's only route to energy independence.

By Nelson D. Schwartz, FORTUNE Europe editor
February 9, 2006: 11:31 AM EST

NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - Presidents going back to Richard Nixon have been talking about energy independence. It's one of those vote-getting platforms that no one could possibly be against -- like world peace, mom and apple pie. It gives us the illusion of control over our energy destiny, which we don't have, at least in a fossil-fuel based economy.

But it's a lost cause.

The only way we're ever going to be able to boost oil supplies here at home is through conservation, and that's something the government is going to have push aggressively, at least until technological advances like cellulosic ethanol, hydrogen and other alternative energy forms become available.

Don't take my word for it. Just listen to what Big Oil has to say.

It's not every day that an industry best known for keeping its head down takes issue with the President of the United States on the subject of ending our dependence on foreign oil. But that's exactly what happened on Tuesday when an Exxon Mobil (Research) exec had the courage to say aloud what every oil insider in the world knows -- America isn't going to be 'energy independent' anytime soon, if ever