If terrorists took over OPEC, would the U.S. have to switch to alternative fuels?

Question

If terrorists took over OPEC, would the U.S. have to switch to alternative fuels?

Answer 1

No.  The biggest supplier to the USA is Canada and we are expanding production.

Answer 2

no, we have more oil here that the OPEC nations. Montana, Alaska, Gulf of Mexico. We just need more refining plants.

Answer 3

Do we assume that the terrorists would be someone other than the USA?

The USA would undoubtedly have to launch an attack on all OPEC countries, one at a time, to win them back to democracy and Christianity.

Or maybe nuke them and send in oil drillers in  radiation hazard suits.

But this would be a wake up call to cut back consumption. Consumption of oil would be treasonable. All of the oil would go to the military so that the  military could conquer OPEC.

All residents of OPEC countries would be stacked 30 deep in cells in gitmo if we decide not to nuke them.

Alternative fuels? not a chance.

Answer 4

OPEC countries account for slightly less than half of the US petroleum imports.  (Broken out by country, the two largest import sources to the US are Canada and Mexico, both non-OPEC countries.)

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_mo...

Would the US _have_ to switch to alternative fuels if we were no longer able to import from OPEC countries (Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela)?  In the short term, we'd try to import more from other countries (besides domestic production), but since the supply is short the price will go up.  It would take a while for the existing vehicles on the road to be converted to use alternative fuels (such as biodiesel, E85, CNG, LPG, BEV, PHEV), and conversion costs as well as the price for those fuels will go up as demand will also outstrip supply.

Answer 5

What alternate fuels?

Present fuels include coal, oil, gas, wood. Electricity from Nuclear and hydro. Gasoline is the only one that lends itself to practicality in vehicles.

Hydrogen and battery require one of the originals thats already in short supply.

Answer 6

You might want to take a reality check, the terrorist ARE in charge of Opec.  Iran, Chavez, and so many others.

Answer 7

We wouldn't be able to that quickly. We'd be screwed. Hopefully we can do this soon so we don't have to worry about it.