national energy policy and energy independence

phaster · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 15, 2007 Posts: 187

with all the talk of energy policy and energy independence, and both major party candidates saying the other party's energy policy is the wrong track, just thought I'd point out that the republican position of drilling our way out of the so called high energy costs felt by many americans at the pump is not a solution because any republican position does nothing to limit the demand side of the equation...

Likewise the general point of view of the democratic party is ya can find a solution to high gas/oil prices by working on conservation (i.e. the demand side of the equation), while ignoring the supply side of the equation.

IMHO the USA will not have a workable energy policy and will not achieve energy independence, until the american public and politicians realize two basic points...

The first basic point is there are two sides of the energy equation one being the demand side and the other being the supply side and any policy needs to address this reality.

The second basic point is, cheap energy has its unintended costs on society and the environment. If the goal is to lessen energy dependence on say oill from the middle east, then the general public has to make some kind of ecomomic sacrifice to achieve that goal and "political leaders" have to have the balls to actually tell the american public that so called american dream (of a house in the burbs, driving a big old car not just an SUV, and shopping at a mall for lots of consumer goods, etc.) is not economically or environmentally sustainable....
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"I'm 100% sure that unsustainable conspicuous consumption of natural basic resources will eventually lead to a proverbial hell on earth for those people who get stuck with the mismanagement mess of mankind not being stewards of the environment!"