Energy

America has the resources and technology to become energy independent, a condition that is greatly needed based on national security and economic realities. Toward achieving energy independence, the "do nothing" congress of 2008 handed the president one card out of the energy deck that was an "Ace". By doing nothing, the congress allowed the decades old congressional oil drilling ban to expire providing a great opportunity for the country to both gain economic momentum and provide pressure on OPEC to drive down the price of oil. This opportunity should have been seized and maximized. However, not only was it squandered, but the BP oil spill in the gulf was utilized to reinstate the policy of diminishing all off-shore oil production and exploration.

Although increasing oil production is a major step in gaining energy independence, it must be accompanied by additional complementary actions in order to realize this strategic goal. The major building blocks for market driven energy independence are:

• Expeditiously resume production of oil from existing wells after a thorough inspection has been made of the idled production facilities
• Develop known oil reserves, such as ANWR, to increase the domestic supply of crude oil available to refineries
• Increase domestic oil refining capacity
• Expand the application of the country's plentiful natural gas supplies to lessen the dependence on foreign oil
• Fast track the appropriate action to fully utilize existing nuclear powered generating stations
• Identify sites for the construction of 10 new nuclear power plants and cut the "red tape" associated with their completion. Nuclear power has not only been demonstrated as a safe source of power, but it also has a much lower cost than petroleum based energy generation and has no greenhouse gas effect
• Develop clean coal power generation plants utilizing carbon sequestration technology. With this in place, the country can add to its power generating options its vast coal reserves.
• Aggressively pursue additional forms of energy generation from green technology sources, such as wind and solar.
• Reject the false premise and implementation of "cap and trade" policies and the Kyoto Treaty. Both of these approaches that claim to improve the environment and help mankind will do neither. Rather, they will increase the cost of energy while reducing its supply, thereby doing an economic injustice to the citizens of all of the countries throughout the world.

The goal must be to push the country toward domestic energy expansion and independence at a grueling pace. There have been descriptions of a "Manhattan Project" approach to resolving the country's energy problems and that comparison may prove valid. For that to take place, the government must remove the barriers it has raised to market-driven research and technology and the consumption of domestic energy resources based on the free flow of supply and demand.