Why aren't we making moves to become energy independent?

I have asked my conservative friends this question: "If Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia grew sweet potatoes instead of sitting on big ponds of oil would we have been attacked on 9/11 or would we be in Iraq?" The answer is almost always, "I doubt it" If that is the case it seems logical to pursue energy independence. I always hear these same conservatives rail against the administration of Jimmy Carter, but at least he made moves toward energy independence. I would drive 55mph--it would help toward dependence on foreign oil and save lives to boot. The car companies should be mandated to provide better mileage--GM fights against it but they would sell more cars.

often used when someone questions the prevailing american mindset.

question asked because everyone knows that libruls (and anyone who questions Repug talking points or the ways of the sheeple) are eeevul Murka-haters.
(heh - the whitehouse.org site even has a section for kids with a page titled "how to tell if your parents are liberal America haters: http://www.whitehouse.org/kids/eagle.asp )

On a somewhat related note, how does one go about finding the DU Glossary??? I was trying to find it the other day (probably when someone asked a question about the usage of "moran" or some such thing) and couldn't.
It is a VERY useful tool, and should be *pinned* to the top of a welcome page, or FAQ page, etc.

i am doing my best to be as self-sufficient as possible.

I think that if I don't do it, reality will - and reality can bite.

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/

Our government and the corporations who pull the strings don't want us to be energy independent.

and by the corporation.

petro chemical profits determine our foreign and domestic policy.

Every day that we remain in the middle east and every day that this
corrupt administration is in charge is another day that we are even
farther from a solution to this problem. They are the problem -Not the
answer to our energy situation.

We have thrown our men and women into the hell in Iraq so that
Cheney, Bush and the rest of the neo cons could rope our nation
to their oil companies for the foreseeable future.

why we don't become more energy independent. I guess there's just not any money in conservation. This is a textbook example of why public financing would get us a better government.

What would YOU do to become energy independent? What are YOUR ideas? (Pretend you're President)

1) Raise CAFE, this is by far the most important point.

2) Keep tax credits on hybrids even after the sales targets are met. There are currently no tax credits for Prius because too many of them have been sold in the USA.

3) Promote and get up the infrastructure for plug in hybrids, including more wind farms, solar farms and whatever else we've got for renewables.

4) Research ethanol to make it more efficient, possibly using sugar or switchgrass or whatever it takes to make it feasible.

5) Promote technologies to make oil from garbage and biowaste.

6) Encourage/expand subway systems or maybe even just pay for them in cities like Dallas or Atlanta where people won't ride a bus, but would be more likely to take the subway. If it works there, keep going with smaller cites like Milwaukee, Minneapolis etc.

But they wouldn't do anything, in the near-term (20 years) to solve the problems now. Those are technologies that would be pursued by the same companies making money off of oil now, so the profits they make wouldn't be affected. I notice nothing about drilling domestically for oil (ANWR, Colorado Shale Oil, drilling off the coasts of Florida, California and the Gulf), or waiving environmental regulations to build new refineries. Are you against these?

however I am against drilling if it is not part of a comprehensive energy strategy. I think you can make a pretty good case for drilling offshore since it sounds like the Chinese and Cubans are going to do it if we won't. I think passing higher CAFE standards might bring down oil futures which wouldn't hurt. I disagree that my solutions wouldn't help for 20 years! I think of short term more like 1 year or less. I think of my solutions as more mid-term like 1-5 years.

There's very little we can do short term, except things that would be wildly unpopular like gas rationing or reducing speed limits. Even if you open up more drilling, that oil wouldn't come online in the short term.

If the policies that Carter initiated had stayed in play, we wouldn't be in this mess.
However, nothing is going to happen overnight and we are literally going to have to suck it up NOW and take drastic measures to fix this.
However, American's are good at sacrifice. So we shall see.

Peace and Conservation are antithetical to their basic principles...which are GREED! GREED! and, oh yes, GREED!

if this nation and our way of life is important, we should do everything we can to protect and support it -- and in the process, consider military action the last of our concerns. Yet somehow, this reality escapes the pinheads and paper pushers in Washington, and now we've lost almost 35 years, a period of opportunity we should not have let slip away, for today. . . today, there's too much that's slipping away or being forcefully taken.

you do the math.

:shrug:

In L.A. there used to be trolly cars , red line , blue line and the like . GM bought it up and made certain this system would never operate again . They wanted more cars and roads and now this is what we've got .

Big oil is big profit as you all know .

Second , people have become more than spoiled with their cars , they love their cars and are sold all the latest bells and crap beside this and more important is people feel free and independant driving their own car and this is where they refuse to sacrifice . They won't take public transport even if it were available everywhere . They have their children and their stereo and a home away from home sitting in traffic , they call this freedom and safety .

This idea was sold to the public long ago where at one time people didn't mind public transport and a bit of walking .

God forbid , what would happen to all the fast food drive throughs and public parking lots and all the parking meters ?

There lot of companies who depend on traffic including traffic tickets .

Almost everything we have is built around the automobile as it was designed to be .

Certainly everyone could drive less but I don't see many people taking to that idea , we have a landscape of cars instead of trees .

One would wonder about global warming when we heare about new lamp bulbs with less hear emmitted and less energy , what about the heat emmitted by car cooling systems and exhaust and engine block heat , does this not add to the overall effect ?

The planet?

We cannot escape conflict, and the larger our institutions grow, the larger(or smaller, depending on the perspective of what you're talking about) the conflicts will be.

"The car companies should be mandated to provide better mileage"

Perfect example.

"GM fights against it but they would sell more cars."

Requiring more overall energy, thus creating more conflict(with the atmosphere, some group that doesn't want to give up their energy, some group that wants more energy, etc, etc).