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The resulting fallout would change the world as we know it-literally.
The Middle East would no longer be such an important region and the clout of the oil producing countries would fall considerably.
We would have the strategic ability to act in our interests without fear of alienating foreign energy sources.
Becoming energy independent or at least semi-dependent would be the finest achievement of the United States since the Revolutionary war.
One step towards achieving a semi-independent state from foreign producers is to focus on our shale oil reserves.
It is estimated that the largest portion of the world's shale reserves are in the United States (Wyoming, Utah and Colorado).
It seems in the past that the problem has been the lack of technology to transform the shale into usable oil.
Shell Oil has, it claims, succeeded in finding a way to do it economically by superheating the rock.
If Shell's secretive Mahogany Research Project is successful our usable reserves would surpass even Saudi Arabia's.
Combine this massive oil reserve with more fuel efficient cars, new fuels (switchgrass ethanol) and other renewable fuel sources (wind) and we will be well on our way towards independence! Becoming independent will automatically change the focus for our military and our economy.
We will not be as apt to enter into military conflict in the Middle East because the resources it possesses will be of only minor interest.
Our economy will not be held hostage by a multitude of regimes bent on destroying our way of life.
Watch the stock market plunge every time a despot in the Middle East or South America sneezes.
Then tell me we are not at their mercy.
This may be an overly simplistic view of how resource independence would be a boom both politically and militarily, but the basic principle is simple.
Reduce our dependence and increase out independence.
We are literally held hostage by the oil rich countries of the world.
Right now Americans are still able to live with $3.
00 a gallon gas, but what about $5.
00 a gallon or more?The average American can not afford it.
Middle class America can't take much more debt.
It will not be long until we have payment plans for gas, oh, wait, we do-credit cards!No wonder the average American has $9,000-to-$10,000 worth of credit card debt.
Militarily there is not an oil rich country in the world we can't reach out and touch, but the international fallout is not worth it.
The United States needs to recover some of its former acceptance and gain back the alliances we once enjoyed.
Our dependence makes us more likely to go to war to preserve our strategic interests.
Europe and other countries do not worry because in the end they know the United States will take the necessary steps required to stop any threats to the supply chains.
If we are independent then the responsibility falls to Europe and other regional powers like China.
It will be their supply lines to worry about.
The United States will always have to keep an eye on the Middle East and the world, but if our energy is home grown we can be a little less apprehensive.
The European Union can have its turn in the spotlight, policing the world.
Then we will see the fallout at the United Nations over their actions instead of the United States taking every hit.
How many troops would the European Union base in Iraq and how would they deal with Iran if their economies' life blood was at stake?We are hated now because we do have to police the region for our strategic interests and everyone else's.
If we left and the European Union had to fend for itself in the Middle East, who would be the "great Satan" then? Our dependency and our strategic interests have only recently (in a historical perspective) required that we get deeply involved with the Middle East.
The Europeans have used the Middle East as their little military playground for thousands of years.
Rome sent legions, European kingdoms sent crusaders, later powers sent colonial armies and even the Nazi's sent armies into the region during WWII.
Yet, today the United States is the enemy of the region because we have to clean up the former playground.
Becoming independent of the resources in that region will again leave the area to the Europeans.
The Europeans conveniently forget anything earlier than the Gulf War-to them we made the mess.
Developing our resources will allow the United States to focus on bigger issues (e.
g.
, nuclear proliferation) and enable us to remove ourselves from daily intervention in the Middle East.
There is no doubt that we will still have concerns in the region, but a lot of our actions would then be to benefit our allies more than ourselves.
We would be viewed as an asset instead of the energy greedy giant.
Our traditional allies would once again value our assistance.
China would need us too.
China would know that the vacuum left in the Middle East, if we withdrew because of energy independence, would hurt them the most.
They are a giant consumer of energy and a destabilized region would kill their supply lines.
They have made deals with smaller oil producing countries, but even those would not be safe in a destabilized Middle East.
Just the prospect of the region becoming of minor strategic importance to the United States would have the world gasping.
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