We need to take both short term and long term actions in order to lower the cost of our energy. Short term= opening up our Strategic Oil Reserves and dump 2 million barrels of oil per day into the world market for 15 days. If oil producers, distributors or speculators take actions attempting to create oil price spikes, we repeat the process. We can buy ourselves about 12 months of $90-$100 oil prices. Sufficient time for the U.S. to start implementing long term measures.

Can we drill our way out? Probably not. Can we think our way out? Definitely. World oil operates in a non-free market where the law of supply and demand is minimized. World oil has an ever rising demand curve, futures speculation from non oil users and producers, limited sources of supply and, restrictive regulation by the U.S. Government. This gives you the "Perfect Storm" for high oil prices. It is now critical in terms of our National Security and future economic survival that we start the process towards energy independence. We have the technology to extract additional amounts of oil from all of our domestic sources without damaging the environment. Substantial permanent tax credits to spur investment by the private sector in the development and distribution of solar, wind and, geothermal energy sources. Tax incentives to the auto industry to increase development of hybred and flex fuel vehicles. Nuclear power plant construction and operational systems designs have been standardized. We can build dozens of safe reactors at the same time in different parts of the country in the span of ten years.
There are three major factors that control the price of oil. Oil producers and individual Governments (including the United States) restrict supply. Producers do so by controlling output and by making only minimal investments in the equipment necessary to increase production capacity. O.P.E.C. learned in the Seventies that if you artificially restrict supply, you can increase your profits while producing less oil. The U.S. Government's regulations restricting domestic exploration and extraction further reduces supply. Oil companies restrict distribution. Speculators artificially inflate demand. Last year's major expansion of the "Dubai Exchange" is an example of the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars available for trading in oil futures. Gasoline is not the only use for oil. The purpose of increasing our domestic supplies is to replace oil imports not supplement them. The lack of gasoline refinery capacity is a "Red Herring" argument. When was the last time you went to fill up and the station was out of gas? If historic gasoline demand trends continue, we will probably reach maximum refinery capacity in about 7 years. We still have time to build more refineries and/or update and expand capacity at existing facilities. We need to utilize ALL of our energy sources. Nuclear, hydro, solar, wind and, clean coal for industrial electricity generation. Gasoline, hybrid and, bio fuels for transportation. Research and development of alternative energy sources should be accelerated. We need to develop efficient and economically viable resources to replace oil.

Working together, we can become energy independent by 2020. It is just a matter of Foresight.