Last Updated on: 5th July 2025, 02:44 am
It’s Independence Day here in the United States, which commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence (from England) in 1776. What proceeded was millions upon millions — sorry, hundreds of millions — of immigrants coming to the United States in the next couple hundred years … and then Americans in the 21st century deciding immigrants shouldn’t be coming to the United States to pursue the American Dream anymore and should be stuffed into concentration camps in swamps, prisons, and former military torture sites. Needless to say, even with its very checkered past, the country is falling from the heights of its idealism and progressive values.
Anyway, I came here to write about energy independence on this Independence Day. This concept is often meant to refer to US energy production becoming enough for US energy needs, and is particularly centered around oil. The discussion normally is so simplistic that it ignores the complexities of oil produced for exports markets, oil produced for the domestic market, and getting off of oil much more in order to reduce our production needs.
But beyond that, the phrase as it is used in the United States very much ignores the fact that many, many countries would like to get off of dependence on US oil, and other oiligarch-run countries. Soooooo many countries are in a difficult and very unbalanced relationship with the US due to the importance of oil for transportation in their countries and globally. They would, no doubt, love to achieve energy independence. They would love to no longer be under the thumb of the United States. And if they haven’t figured that out yet, they will soon.
I have to come back to Ethiopia, which has had the sense to completely ban the import of gas/diesel-powered vehicles, and may well inspire other countries to do the same. The country wants energy independence, as it should. Wait until the possibility of this catches on and dozens or hundreds of countries implement similar bans!
The past 100+ years have been dominated by growing dependence on oil around the world and the economic and political shifts that have results. The next 100 years will be heavily influenced and defined by an untangling of this, a move toward distributed energy independence, and an unravelling of petro-state dominance. Get the popcorn, because there will be fireworks and it will be interesting!
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