The same people that advocate for energy independence don’t want
offshore drilling, even though the technology has advanced so much that
drilling is far off the coast and is extremely unlikely
(understatement) to cause environmental damage–especially with natural
gas.  If states used their leverage now to eliminate the federal
prohibition on new offshore drilling, each state could decide for
itself whether to allow drilling, and best of all, to be able to secure
significant royalties.

These same people also oppose nuclear power–in other words, it
is less about energy independence than opposition to fossil fuels (oil,
natural gas, clean coal).  If it were about independence, then
there would be no opposition to these far more viable alternatives.

I
love this line in the op-ed: “This legislation will help us boost our
energy sector by, among other things, lowering the price at the pump
for homegrown “freedom fuels” such as biodiesel. (The Senate bill
provides a tax credit to the distributor of biodiesel fuels in order to
bring the cost of biodiesel closer to the cost of regular diesel.)”

In
other words, the Senate is going to manipulate prices.  There is a
reason why biodiesel and other renewables aren’t prevalent: they cost
too much right now or still aren’t viable (alternative sources such as
wind power take up way too much land, but that doesn’t seem to matter
to “environmentalists”).  If the costs can be brought down, and
I’m sure there are plenty of companies that would like to find a way to
bring costs down (out of profit motive alone), then we will begin
seeing more “freedom fuels.”

Even worse, the government thinks it
knows better than you as to what kind of energy sources you should
use.  In fact, the government is going to take your tax dollars to
give to distributors that provide an expensive product.  If there
are tax credits to keep prices artificially low, this weakens any
incentive biodiesel producers have to find new ways to keep costs down.

This
isn’t about energy independence–this is about dependence on government
to reduce demand for viable energy sources and help us pay,
indefinitely, for energy sources that are costly and impractical.