RAYMOND: Frankly, if the conversation is going to be largely focused on global warming, that’s not really where I’m going to go. The National Petroleum Council’s study says, on the question of global warming, if policymakers conclude that actions should be taken, that would force, likely, a change in the energy mix and would force higher costs of energy.
The notion of energy independence in this country may sound attractive to Americans, because Americans tend to think they can divorce themselves from the rest of the world, but the United States can’t be [truly] independent. We are part of the worldwide system. This notion that people have that “we’re going to stop importing crude oil from Saudi Arabia”—facts are, [wherever you buy from] in effect you’re still importing Saudi crude oil, because the Saudi crude oil is in the world pool.
