ENERGY IMPORT SUBSTITUTION

Costs of oil beyond NAFTA are part of North American trade which its
economy must pay out and recoverby return trade or lose that wealth as
part of its national & trade union wealth.

While some in OPEC see that cartel as a riches re-distribution scheme
(ie a re-dealng of the worl'ds haves and have nots) the USA does not.

Import substitution is the standard address to any growing import which
is not offset by exports.

When the USA's trade imbalance was a small part of her GDP (even today
without oil -- it is a small part of our GDP ) the matter was less
pressing. Today, the consumption of petroleum and gas raise that import
level particularly high. So, the US and similar nations which are net
oil importers, must export more to stay even in their balance of trade.
Japan and the UK are classic examples of high export nations due to
imports .

Were the USA's trade figures reviewed, they would be pretty good without
the oil imports.

That is the problem.

So, import substitution applied to fuel imports, means replacing
imports of oil with something else - and cultivating and giving
breathing room (like an import cartel in Japan's MITI terminology) if
necessary, to develop domestic NAFTA sources of energy.

<a href=http://www.pickensplan.com>The Pickens Plan</a> has made
headlines because of its high capital investment in American domestic
resources- particulary non-carbon -- wind power in particular. It is
worthwhile, and after its investment, wind power could save a constant
of 20 to 30% of today's fossil fuel imports/use.

Americans know what substituting a domestic product for an import is,
and can do it without trade wars or damaging the productivity of our
good return trading partners. (Some of our trading parterns import 10
to 20 timesper capita from the USA & depend on all the export economy
they can muster.)

So without wasting words-- investing in a domestic fuels picture by
favoring import substitution makes sense. Especially given the cost of
carbon fuels and the extraction & transport of them from abroad.

America will never be autarkic nor promote autarchy -- but reducng the
risk of a national security incident over imported fuel and healthening
our economy's domestic production suggest the import substitution road
now.

Oil will always be there for emergency import.

Import substitution is not protectionist is economic health.