I am not sure our people and especially our government see the big picture of what is going on with OPEC in general and Saudi Arabia specifically. Their continued high-volume oil production has driven oil prices down and had deleterious effects on Russia and Venezuela and helped to temporarily lower America’s gasoline costs.

The shale oil discovery and production in the U.S. Northwest and Canada lessened the strangle hold OPEC has had on the world economy. A by-product benefit is a lesser amount of American gas and oil money paid to OPEC — and used to fund terrorism against America.

Now my fear and caution to my countrymen.

Imagine OPEC’s strategy of overproduction driving down world prices just to bankrupt these fledgling U.S. and Canadian oil producers. So while we are temporarily paying these low gasoline prices and loving it, it will be short lived.

At one time the small town U.S. businesses competed for the consumer’s dollar. Along came an entrepreneurial American company and created a series of large box stores underselling the small or weak small town stores, forcing their closing.

This business ploy by OPEC would allow them to be the big box store of oil, once again because of no competition. This is bad; the next logical step would be for OPEC directly or through a third party to buy the Northwest U.S. and Canadian oil fields and the failed energy companies.

Where is our national energy policy to protect the country from this catastrophe? The gasoline tax greed of the states is rearing its head as they see this as an opportunity to steal from the driving public and blame OPEC.