What if the USA became oil-independent?

Imagine the U.S. not having to buy oil from the Middle East! Wouldn't that be great? Such a scenario is not impossible but it would take a revolution in the U.S. transportation industry to make it happen. The industry pretty much runs on gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel, which all come from oil. The current statistics are that the U.S. produces 3% but consumes 25% of world oil and much of that consumption goes into producing fuels and products for transportation. I used to think that oil was heavily used to produce electricity in the U.S. but that is not the case. Much of the electricity produced in the U.S. still comes from from coal, and very little is made from oil.

I recently heard a speech by Ann Korin and was shocked to learn what a stranglehold the Middle East has on the U.S. economy through the lack of fuel choice. Korin is a co-director at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) and she spoke about becoming oil independent at the National Conservative Student Conference in Washington DC in August 2008. She said that the U.S. can't win the war against terror if it buys oil from the countries where the terrorists are home-grown.