Energy Independence? You Have a Better Chance of Winning the Lottery

Every U.S. president since Richard Nixon has promised energy independence somewhere in the foggy future. Democrat or Republican, they have each stated an energy policy that would see America free of foreign oil somewhere down the road. Oil imports have seen a year-over-year increase nearly every year since 1970. That's more than four decades of hot air from politicians articulating various impotent energy policies all aimed at making the U.S. energy independent.

Here's the unvarnished truth about energy independence: It is today's Holy Grail, a 21st century unicorn; it is not only elusive, it cannot be achieved today, tomorrow or in the next 50 years!

As a country we are borrowing billions of dollars from China to prop up through subsidies cave-man technologies, such as wind and solar, as well as, perhaps the biggest scam ever perpetrated against the American taxpayer: ethanol. We give tax breaks to people willing to pay extra for hybrid, electric and diesel vehicles. Meanwhile we are sitting on decades worth of coal, oil and natural gas; all of which are much more efficient than any of the subsidized energy schemes. But in reality, even mining all of our homegrown energy won't make us energy independent. It's an unachievable goal.

As with the ongoing argument to cut $60 billion or $30 billion or $6 billion from a budget that will add $1.5 trillion to our $14.5 trillion debt, the repeated call to action for energy independence is nothing more than a shell game diverting our attention away from real issues.

I clearly recall a political science professor I had in college telling my class one day that a trick employed by local politicians to make it look as though they had accomplished something of significance at election time was to repaint the lines on the streets. It provided the illusion that the streets had been repaved.

Wind, solar and ethanol are new lines painted on the streets-- all with taxpayer money.

You don't have to take my word for any of this. For your reading, I recommend Robert Bryce's Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence. It is a well-researched, detailed and abundantly footnoted work debunking the idea of energy independence. Dissecting caveman technologies, ethanol, import-oil alarmism and 40 year of U.S. energy policy (or nonpolicy, if you will), it lays waste to most of what we have been told by our politicians and the media regarding energy.

It will open your eyes; it certainly did mine.