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A comment on Photos Capture the Breathtaking Scale of China's Wind and Solar Buildout. Parent comment

Re:Photos Capture the Breathtaking Scale of China's Wind and... by m4ck_ on Thursday January 15, 2026 @05:19PM (#46640194)
We're only energy independent in the sense that we export more oil than we import. We're still reliant on foreign oil because we haven't retooled (or built enough new) refineries for a lot of the oil we produce. Allowing the Saudis to own refineries is probably a strong factor there. If the middle east and Canada cut us off, we're SOL. Venezuela barely produces anything right now.
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Re:Photos Capture the Breathtaking Scale of China's Wind and... by OkayPhysicist on Thursday January 15, 2026 @06:13PM (#46640770)
Retooling refineries to a different flavor of crude is expensive, but not that expensive. If push came to shove, the US could transition to oil independence in less than a year.
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