Correction, Mr Cole: 'the industry we have relied upon to pay most of our bills since 1980' is a fallacy that the oil co's like to use.

They (and now you) skip right over the fact that it's OUR OIL, that's paid our bills.  Not the extraction industry. They're not the big-hearted altruists that the fallacy suggests they are.

If the industry has their way, they'll pay nothing, and hand us a bill. And since they do have their way....that's pretty close to how things stand today.