I am no "expert" but: The "jobs" issue is a red herring. 500,000 oil industry jobs lost? That's nothing. How many Truck drivers, Taxi drivers, etc., will lose THEIR jobs if gas was $3.00/gallon? And we ARE NOT Europe. Have looked at a map recently? The North American continent is more than just a little bit larger that the European continent. It takes OIL to get goods from one place to another on this continent. And transportation costs are a much more significant portion of the total cost here. Yet our TOTAL system is much more efficient, thus our being the one true Superpower. (You don't think it's just the nuclear bombs, do you?) We would need a COMPLETE restructure of our economy, and way of life for that matter, to accomodate 3,4,or even 5 dollar a gallon gas prices as they have in Europe. And as for "being dependent" on other country's oil supplies, well just think about it for a minute.... We're burning THEIR oil right now, right? Why should we be in such a hurry to use up OUR supply? As long as we can get their oil cheap, why don't we save our own for the rainy day that all the doomsayers are sure is coming? Tom
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