The U.S. has only itself to blame - and the U.S. military - for its dependency on foreign oil
What a shocker!
According to the GrowthPoint Technology Partners‘ managing director Robert Horstmeyer, the U.S. military helps subsidising the price of the country’s foreign oil imports to a staggering $50 per barrel of crude; today the barrel of crude rose a bit over $70.
All energies are subsidised, not just the clean, renewable ones
So if Horstmeyer’s calculation is right, the “real” price of gasoline in the U.S. should be closer to $5-$6 a gallon than the average price of $3 in California today, for example.
“It’s very difficult to figure out, when you’re looking at different energy supply, what the real cost of energy is. Everything is subsidised and some of it is dramatically subsidised,” explains Horstmeyer, speaking at an event on solar energy hosted by the SDForum.
The investment banker claims – citing military sources – that the Pentagon is spending about a third of its defense budget – which represents $518.3 billion in fiscal year 2009 – to protect the oil fields in the Middle East, “plus 2 wars!”
“So we’re talking hundreds of billions of dollars a year to import maybe 10 million barrels a day. So if we want to cost that oil properly, we should add $50 a barrel to those imported barrels coming from the Middle East,” explains the investment banker.
Follows are 2 video excerpts. The first related to Horstmeyer’s comments on oil subsidies and the second is his introduction remarks.
Posted by TechPulse 360 
