Oil is a very important component of economic growth.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Oil demand is going to continue to grow as population grows.
Our oil problems are only going to get worse. Our trade balance is only going to get worse. So we have to slow the growth of U.S. oil consumption, particularly imported oil consumption.
The people of the United States don't recognize it, but the oil industry has given the greatest gift to the people of the nation, and that gift is the low cost of energy. Bottom line is this enables the country to be very competitive manufacturing-wise and in the world economy.
Oil prices have certainly become a threat for the world economy.
Pricey oil makes clear that wealth really is energy in various forms.
The oil areas have a big problem digesting the oil. There's too much money, and the people don't know what to do with it. I'm finding all the time that we have more industries and more success stories which are not involved with oil.
Oil is a very valuable resource for life - electric heaters. We must have to transition ourselves to a post-oil era. And that's what we must discuss: searching and developing new sources of energy. And that requires scientific research. That requires investment. And the developed countries must be the ones to assume this responsibility first.
The less oil the world uses, the less important the region that has so much of it becomes.
If you ask an economist what's driven economic growth, it's been major advances in things that mattered - the mechanization of farming, mass manufacturing, things like that. The problem is, our society is not organized around doing that.
Oil is ancient wealth in the ground.