This tidbit just popped in over the transom from a conservative friend of mine who lives in up yonder in Gray County, Texas.

He received an invitation from Ryan Sitton, a Republican candidate for Texas railroad commissioner, to attend an event in which Sitton was going to extol his efforts to wean the nation of its “dependence on Russian oil.”

My friend is perplexed. So am I.

Neither of us was aware that Texas and the United States had a “dependence” on Russian crude.

He flashed the invitation to me electronically. Sure enough, that’s what Sitton said.

I looked at the list of Sitton endorsements and saw some familiar names. Former Amarillo oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens is on it; so is Railroad Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman and former RRC chair Elizabeth Ames Jones.

Do they know something the rest of the world doesn’t know, that we have grown dependent on Russian oil?

I looked it up. The information from the U.S. Energy Information Administration is a bit dated, but in 2007, 3.4 percent of U.S. oil imports came from Russia. Our biggest supplier then was Canada, with whom we share the world’s longest unprotected border.

I’ve been pondering this for a bit. Since 2007, our oil imports have declined. The United States is now consuming more domestic oil than it is importing. The oil boom that exploded in West Texas has reignited here. Try getting a hotel room in the Permian Basin. You’ll be paying through the news for a room at a Motel 6. Why is that? Drilling contractors have gobbled up lodging space.

I haven’t even mentioned the shale oil boom in North Dakota, which is remaking life as they’ve known in that rural part of America.

So, what’s Ryan Sitton talking about? Russian oil dependence? The young man needs some counseling.

Thanks, my friend in Gray County, for bringing this to light.