Americans to Saudis: You need our weapons. We need your oil.

Here is a succinct example of why US needs to break its addiction to oil: US Senators Pressuring Saudis to Hike Oil Output.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats Tuesday introduced legislation to stop a U.S. arms sale to Saudi Arabia worth $1.4 billion in a tactic supporters said was aimed at pressuring the OPEC country to increase its oil output.

"We are saying that we need real relief and we need it quickly. You (Saudi Arabia) need our arms, but we need you to cooperate and not strangle American consumers," said Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat.

With the right mix alternative energy and a more energy efficient lifestyle, politicians twenty years from now might be saying, "You need XYZ from us, but we don't need anything from you. So we're urging you to introduce some democratic reforms and give equal rights to women."

For now, though, we'll use our influence to urge them to enable a lifestyle in our country that's unsustainable. Or maybe they'll use their influence to urge us to sell them more weapons.

Getting off this lifestyle is not that hard, but it takes time to build up the infrastructure.

• Make our cities more walkable.
• Build nuclear power plants.
• Design everything for energy efficiency.
• Invest in alternative energy.