This is not “shocking” nor “surprising,” but watch our officials try and act like it is.

Lil’ ol me, who is not in the oil industry, has been reading about this for at least the past five years. Probably longer.

Simple math: We need more oil than we can produce. Even if we “cut back,” we’ll need more oil than we can produce. And where do we get that oil from? “Unstable parts of the world.” Who have us by the balls.

Plugged in: The hard truth about oil

It’s not every day that an industry best known for keeping its head down takes issue with the President of the United States on the subject of ending our dependence on foreign oil. But that’s exactly what happened on Tuesday when an Exxon Mobil (Research) exec had the courage to say aloud what every oil insider in the world knows — America isn’t going to be ‘energy independent’ anytime soon, if ever.

‘Realistically, it is simply not feasible in any period relevant to our discussion today,’ Exxon Senior V.P. Stuart McGill told the crowd at a Houston energy conference, according to Reuters.

Referring to the gap between imports and domestic production — which is about 10 million barrels, or half our daily consumption, McGill said, ‘Americans depend upon imports to fill the gap. No combination of conservation measures, alternative energy sources and technological advances could realistically and economically provide a way to completely replace those imports in the short or medium term.’