How to reduce our dependence on foreign oil

There are memes out there that even hardened cynics like myself can end up internalizing and taking as truth. One of these is the idea of "reducing our dependence on foreign oil" by drilling domestically. As Chris Hayes breaks down in the following segment (starting at 5:40), there is no set aside for oil extracted domestically; it all ends up in the same commodity market, so the idea of reducing our dependence on foreign oil by drilling domestically is mostly self-serving, brilliant PR proffered by oil companies designed to leverage nationalism and national security interests to curry favor for increasing their drilling footprint.


In fairness, there was a time when this argument was legitimate, back when OPEC had enough influence to control the oil market. Now, the market has matured to a point where this is no longer a material concern. Even if it were, drilling domestically is a vastly less efficient way to affect prices than simply reducing demand.

The only realistic way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil is to reduce our dependence on oil, period.