Energy Independence

I see today that President Obama said that he would like to cut United States imported oil dependency by a third over the next 10 years. I applaud and support this goal; HOWEVER, to date this goal and his administration's policies are seemingly the exact opposite of this pronouncement. While probably no one can dispute the need to make sure that deep water oil  drilling is done in an environmentally responsible way to prevent future massive oil spills such as the recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; from what I have read, this administration has approved little if any recent oil drilling permit applications. This administration has talked about reducing oil exploration tax incentives and talked about raising taxes on the "evil BIG OIL" interests and caused thousands of people in the Gulf region of America involved in the oil industry to remain unemployed. Say what you will about Sarah Palin; she does know quite a bit about oil and natural gas issues in Alaska and current horizontal drilling techniques for oil and gas do minimize the environmental impact of drilling. The democrats however, are not convinced to date on the need and desirability to develop the Alaskan oil fields.

So, it is great to talk a good game about "energy independence" but how do you propose to have America become more energy independent from the unstable Mid-East nations when you tie the hands of American oil exploration with taxes, and bureaucratic "red tape"? How do you justify guaranteeing 2 billion dollars of energy loans to Brazil to develop their recent huge oil discovery while handcuffing American oil exploration efforts? Solar and wind power just aren't cost effective or a reliable alternative to oil, coal, and natural gas at the present time.

I believe America does have enough energy resources over time to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources but have not seen any sort of encouragement by the Obama administration to develop these resources. We, instead, hear talk of "high speed rail" service for California and Las Vegas and other such "governmental boondoggles".