Calling an end to oil alarmism

Oil prices have ended their steep ascent — for now — and are headed downward. The near-universal alarm among politicians, pundits, and consumers over America’s dependency on foreign oil has yielded to a wary sense of relief. But both the prior alarm and the current relief are misguided.

Few propositions are at once more widely accepted and less rooted in fact than the notion that increasing reliance on foreign oil is a national security threat requiring urgent action. Such concern reflects a view of markets that has been rendered obsolete by globalization. The oft-stated objective of “energy independence” is as devoid of substance and irrelevant to our security as “computer independence” or, for that matter, “clothing independence.”
Boston Globe