This Week in Politics    Dear Majority Leader Reid:
   Dear Minority Leader McConnell:
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   Our continued dependence on oil produced through drilling in nations whose interests are inimical to those of the United States and our allies opens our nation to added political and international danger at a time of turmoil and uncertainty, with enormous negative consequences for our economy, foreign policy and national security. It is for that reason that we strongly support changes in U.S. energy policy that would reduce our dependence on oil, in particular foreign oil imported from hostile nations - and particularly urge that any Senate energy bill include the Open Fuel Standard, which has been introduced in the Senate as S.835 with bipartisan support, and which is included in a modified (and less satisfactory) form in the House climate bill (H.R.2454).
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Excerpts from recent Articles

  President Obama says his energy policy is a great success. In support, Democratic-party stalwart John Podesta trumpets the claim that the United States is now producing more oil than it imports. A recent article in the Bloomberg News goes even further, saying that the U.S. is now a net oil exporter. New York Times columnist Tom Friedman instructs us to rejoice: High oil prices are now good for the United States.

   The United States is by far the world's leading oil importer. Thus, it follows that when the price of oil goes up, our economy is severely taxed and, therefore, it goes down. Indeed, every oil price increase for the past four decades, including those in 1973, 1979, 1991, 2001 and 2008, has been followed shortly afterward by a sharp rise in American unemployment.
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   The United States is by far the world's leading oil importer. Thus, when the price of oil goes up, our economy is severely taxed. At the beginning of 2011, many economists were talking about an emerging U.S. economic recovery. Yet by spring, as oil prices climbed above $100 per barrel, it became apparent to all who were paying attention that no escape from recession was in sight.
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