Shouldn't it be obvious that the US is not oil dependent anymore?

We're oil dependent, heavily so right now. So are all 1st World countries, and the emerging economies (Pacific Rim, PRC, India, etc.).

While the recent shale gas explosion (no pun intended) means the percentage of US power generation depending on oil is now very small, we still depend heavily on oil for transportation power and petrochemical products (everything you can distill from crude oil besides gasoline). Both of those are key components of our economy, and any serious degradation in supply for either would be a huge economic catastrophe.

While the US does not import much oil from the Middle East, remember that oil is a commodity market - any reduction in the total supply seriously impacts anyone buying the product at all. That is, even though Europe and (now) China are the primary consumers of Middle Eastern oil, and the US primarily consumes oil from North/South American sources, we still are heavily dependent on ME oil.

Put it another way: there's more demand for oil than there is supply. ANY restriction in supply drives prices up for ALL oil sources; so if the Saudis suddenly stopped selling oil, Europe and China would go over to Venezuela and Mexico and bid up the price there, which means the US supply is now under threat.

We're interested in maintaining the world supply, and our access to that supply. Doesn't matter where the oil comes from - we're critically interested in making sure it flows, and, flows to us at a "reasonable" price.

The US is certainly not the only country "oil hungry". We're just the 800-lbs gorilla on the block right now, but China's the 800-lbs panda right behind us.

Ultimately, we'll likely wean ourselves off of oil for power or transportation needs, which is about 75% of all oil we consume. But the petrochemical industry is another story completely, and one which is *much* harder to change out. So oil supplies will continue to be a concern for the next century or more.