ExxonMobil's CEO Offers A Very Simple Reason Why American Energy Independence Is A Bad Idea

But energy independence may actually put America at risk.

In an interview with Charlie Rose, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson says not only will that never actually happen, we wouldn't want it to.

The reason? Supply management.

Via the Charlie Rose transcript:

...the way I think about the risk of major supply disruptions is those are mitigated because we are connected to so many different supplies geographically. It's why, in my comments about energy independence, I've always said I don't think that's in our best interest to be independent. We need to be connected to multiple sources.

Maintaining multiple sources is key to reducing price volatility, he says:

Clearly, the world is — has a lot of places in the world today where stability is an issue. And that can — that can influence the price. It's probably not going to dramatically alter people's access to energy, but it can alter the price at which they have to pay for that energy because a piece of the supply comes off the market, the capacity gets very tight, and the price goes up.

It's a pretty simple argument.

Watch the full interview here >