Increasing Our Dependence on Canadian Oil

While we were all distracted by U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert’s incompetence and Democratic superdelegate’s indecision, U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-5 and one of the few Republican women allowed to have two last names) was busy promoting the great state of Washington. Rep. McMorris Rodgers went on a trade mission. To Canada.

To be fair, Governor Chris Gregoire has touted her trade missions as promoting Washington products the world over, and we agree that trips to Europe, Asia and Australia could legitimately be viewed as helpful to Washington products like wine, software, produce and planes.

But Representative McMorris Rodgers was not promoting Washington products. She was promoting Canadian oil. On her website, she writes that, “we import about 20% of our oil from Canada…Our nation’s dependency on oil, and more specifically oil from less than friendly nations, is a major hindrance to moving our country’s energy policy forward.”

So, rather than invest in clean alternatives to oil, we should drill in friendlier countries, where we don’t need to blow people up in order to steal their resources.

In the Spokane Journal of Business, “'They’re recognizing that right now the U.S. is dependent for oil,' McMorris Rodgers said. ‘We’re getting it from all over the world. They know that we need oil. They have it. They see it as meeting the interests of both countries.’” According to the Calgary Herald, she’s also in favor of putting an oil refinery in the Inland Northwest.