Henry Payne of National Review tosses a slow, mushy one right over the plate. He ridicules fuel-efficient cars in France:
My tiny, 4-door, 1.5 liter Renault Clio was powered by “gasol,” the French term meaning “gas oil,” or diesel. About half of French cars now run on diesel. That’s right, even at 42 mpg, France is still heavily dependent on good old foreign oil. Over 95 percent dependent.
If you don't have any oil under your soil and you use any oil at all, you are 100% dependent on imported oil. Is he trying to dupe his readers, or is he just dumb? Dependence on foreign oil has everything to do with domestic production (thus the ANWR fixation) and absolutely nothing to do with how much of your energy needs are taken care of domestically. Stranger on Wikipedia, take it away:
France is also the most energy independent Western country due to heavy investment in nuclear power, which also makes France the smallest producer of carbon dioxide among the seven most industrialised countries in the world. As a result of large investments in nuclear technology, most of the electricity produced in the country is generated by nuclear power plants (78.1% in 2006,[26] up from only 8% in 1973, 24% in 1980, and 75% in 1990).
Since it's easier for utilities and governments to switch large power plants than it is to create new gas stations and make individuals buy new cars, it's a little like comparing apples to oranges. However, imagine an alternate scenario in which a country fulfills 90 percent of its auto fuel needs with biodiesel, but has a few out-of-date gasoline-powered cars on the road. Also imagine that this country switched to biodiesel because it has no domestic oil reserves. Under this Payn'd logic (pun intended), the punchline is that they are completely dependent on foreign oil. This statistic serves one purpose: to encourage depletion of limited domestic resources instead of depletion of limited foreign resources.
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