Nevada Senator Harry Reid seems to be worried about the hidden costs of fossil fuels.  Maybe he should consider the hidden costs of a pathetically inept national energy policy. If we were not so dependent on foreign sources of crude oil, our national interest in the Persian Gulf region would be about zero.  Instead, we have had to fight two oil wars there in the last twenty years, the 1990-91 Gulf War and the Iraq War, and been involved in a third, more covert war, with Iran since the Carter Administration. The cost has been thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars. 

Unfortunately, Democrats like Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seem intent on insuring that we are in thrall to the House of Saud for generations to come. If they are successful, our vital national interest in the Gulf will continue. If we choose to defend those interests, (a decision that is by no means sure in a Democrat administration), then Iraq will not be the last of costly oil wars.