Washington, D.C., August 20, 2009—August 27 marks the 150th anniversary of the first commercial oil well drilled in Pennsylvania. This historic landmark, and the oil industry in general, should be celebrated by Americans, not derided as a necessary evil.
According to Alex Epstein, an analyst with the Ayn Rand Center, “Oil is tied to so many controversial issues today — global warming, our alleged addiction to oil, not to mention talk of speculators, “windfall profits,” “price gouging,” etc — that it is easy for people to think that we would just be better off without the stuff. Easy, but dead wrong. This is, after all, the industry that lit up America’s homes, created a generation of independent automobile drivers, and helps fuel the global economy.
“But Americans are not “addicted” to oil. “Addiction” implies an intense desire for something harmful. But we do not desire oil irrationally; we consume it because it is a wonderful, life-sustaining product. The truth is that the benefits we derive from having a free oil industry (to the limited extent we have one) are spectacular and spectacularly undervalued—while the problems associated with oil (in particular, global warming and our “dependence” on foreign oil) are either overblown or misconceived.”
