More than any other country the US is dependent on fossil fuels. As by far the world’s largest consumer this dependency is starting to become a problem. The entire economy is built on the idea that fossil fuels can provide the country with cheap energy and for many years that has been the case. Unfortunately that is unlikely to continue, the increasing competition for a limited resource likely means that the price will rise rapidly in the future. Even worse the US has tended to lag behind other countries when it comes to developing alternative energy sources. This is a serious problem that the US is going to have to adapt to if the economy is to remain strong and vibrant.

The main problem with US dependency on fossil fuels is that most of it has to be imported. The US doesn’t produce anywhere near enough fossil fuels to meet their own needs, especially oil. This can be a real problem when there is hostility towards the US from the countries that produce the oil. Over the last fifty years a great deal of US foreign policy has revolved around making sure that the country had access to cheap supplies of oil. This has come at great expense so while the gas may be cheap at the pump a great deal of tax dollars were invested in making sure that cheap gas was available.

The other big problem with the US dependency on fossil fuels is that there is an increasing amount of competition for those fuels. This is mainly from the developing world. Most of the fastest growing economies in the world are also some of the largest countries in the world in terms of population. In order to meet the demand for a higher standard of living that the people in these countries are going to expect from a booming economy more and more fossil fuels are going to be required. This is going to send the price soaring since there is a limited amount that can be produced. People in the US are already concerned about high oil prices but in reality the price is going to go much higher. The US economy is going to have to adapt to this increase if it is to remain competitive.

Of course at some point the fossil fuels are going to run out. Nobody can predict when this will happen but it is pretty widely agreed that we have at least a hundred years before it becomes a problem. Unfortunately this has led to complacency as people aren’t concerned about the fact that in the distant future we will run out of fossil fuels. The problem is that it is going to take many decades to develop and switch the entire country over to alternative energy sources. We can’t wait until we are actually in danger of running out of fossil fuels before we switch over or it will be too late.