Oil Dependence Is a Dangerous Habit - Essay Example

Oil Dependence Is a Dangerous Habit By Rebecca Lefton and Daniel J. Weiss The United States highly relies on imported oil from many unstable countries around the world. For instance, in 2008 the United States spent $150 billion to import 1.5 billion barrels of oil. This habit is harmful to the economy, the environment, and national security. At the same time, only a few oil companies and unstable governments tend to benefit from this practice (Lefton & Weiss 1). The United States’ oil dependency should be replaced with clean-energy policies, which will counter global warming and lead to economic recovery.

The United States helps support unstable governments by importing oil from countries such as Nigeria and Iraq, which have oil-related conflicts. The United States also imports oil from unstable countries such as Syria, Pakistan, Algeria, and Colombia. Conflicts in these regions majorly arise from unequal sharing of oil revenue. Money from oil trade funds dangerous governments (Lefton & Weiss 2).Climate change will create unstable governments, increase terrorist activities and natural disasters, and as a result, displace people from there home (Lefton & Weiss 3).

The top five oil companies; BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhilips, and Shell are the major benefactors of imported oil in the United States. These companies have made billions of profit by importing oil into the United States. These companies have invested a lot of money in campaigns against clean-energy policies with the objective of ensuring oil dependency (Lefton & Weiss 4).