ESTABLISHING AMERICA'S ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

By Craig Williams

We need to buy ourselves 15 to 20 years of traditional energy from domestic sources until we can rely more heavily on renewable energy sources. That includes domestic recovery of oil and natural gas, utilizing clean-burning coal technologies, and increasing the use of nuclear power all while increasing conservation, improving energy efficiency, and funding continued renewable energy research.

Two-thirds of our nation's oil comes from foreign countries. In fact, we send more than $700 billion each year to foreign nations for oil. It is now forecasted that our country will spend more than a trillion dollars on foreign oil this year. And many of these countries make no effort to hide their disdain for democracy and our way of life. This is not just about, $4.00 a gallon gas, this is about our nation's economic and national security. We need to buy ourselves 15 to 20 years of traditional energy from domestic sources until we can rely more heavily on renewable energy sources. My energy plan includes each of the following elements:

• exploring the availability of oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the coastal shelf of the United States, oil shale in the Rockies, and building new refineries

• increasing the recovery of domestic natural gas;

• utilizing new environmentally-friendly clean-burning coal technologies for energy production;

• increasing the use of nuclear power

• increasing conservation and improving energy efficiency

• and funding renewable energy research.

My energy plan contains no equivocations. It is time to unleash the power of American industry and ingenuity, and to take back what Congress has locked away from us: our own energy. Our economic and national security demands it.