"A false sense of energy security"

By T. Boone Pickens in Politico.com:

I've been on both sides of a lot of oil and gas price swings. Every time, the first question people always ask is who wins and who loses.

The immediate answer is easy. When prices rise, consumers pay more, while the oil industry profits. When the market is flooded like it is now, low prices benefit consumers but hurt the oil and gas industry. For the country, there's good and bad on either side. Lower energy prices means consumers can spend more money elsewhere, and higher prices drive the energy industry to invest and create jobs. Over six decades, I've made a lot of bets on oil and gas. During price swings, I've seen a lot of money come and go fast. Thankfully, I've made more good bets than bad ones, but the most valuable thing I've learned about energy is that the long-term costs and long-term benefits matter a lot more than the swings.

The key for America is that we shouldn't let ourselves get distracted by falling oil prices when there is much more at stake. For decades, our dependence on OPEC oil has dictated our national security decisions and tied us up in the Middle East at an incredible price. We've spent more than $5 trillion and thousands of American soldiers have died securing Middle East oil. That long-term cost doesn't get factored in to the price at the pump, so it is critical that we not let ourselves lose sight of the problem and continue expanding American energy production.

We have OPEC on the run, but we are still dangerously dependent. We have the domestic resources, but we need to demand that Washington get serious about a national energy plan that takes the real costs of energy into account. We cannot get sidetracked by a false sense of enhanced energy security and lower gasoline prices. We need leadership in Washington on the future of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the Keystone pipeline and the questions of whether to lift the ban on crude oil exports and whether to expedite natural gas exports. There will always be winners and losers. Let's make sure we're winners.