I love Lee Raymond!

The Exxon chieft says, Energy Independence Is a Myth:

"We simply cannot avoid significant reliance on oil and gas from the Middle East because the world's supply pool (of oil) is highly dependent upon the Middle East," Raymond said in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

The fact that the United States and the rest of the world will have to depend increasingly for its oil and also for natural gas from Middle East, "is not a matter of ideology or politics," he said. "It is simply inevitable."

Raymond is right, but not always.

"We simply do not yet have the economic solutions or technologies that would permit us to meet future energy demands without carbon emissions growth," Raymond said.

If by economical, we mean free, then yes Raymond is correct. We must, however, be willing to pay the price for our energy usage, and in that context we do have many technological solutions available. We don't have all the answers, but we need to try.