Yep. It will have to be a multi-facetted action plan. It is a real crisis and it is in our faces and ignorant government policy and inaction let it happen. The real solution lies in attacking the problem from various directions. Allow me to provide details to your statement.
Explore and drill, east and west coasts and Alaska. And yes, that includes YOU Californians. You ain`t nothing special, except maybe "special-ed." Besides, you need the money because your state is going bankrupt from all the illegal aliens you won't get rid of.
Develop the rather massive oil reserves contained in the Bakken Formation
Build modern technology refineries
Build modern technology Nuke power plants
Build modern technology clean-coal power plants
Open the clean coal deposits Klinton “closed” which contains 62 BILLION tons of environmentally safe low-sulfur coal from the Kaiparowits Plateau in Utah.
Slowly but steadily increase the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE)
Tax breaks to companies developing bio-diesel techniques that create fuel from cheap waste.
Tax breaks and investment perks for moderate temperature geothermal ORC power plant technology that operates off industrial waste heat / geothermal applications to generate power directly and run at 90% efficiency, without impacting oil and gas production.
At 400kW per unit you just line up as many as you need for a small community. Quiet and extremely clean.
Just how can we do this the simple, easy, smart way? How do we get away from the ignorance of ethanol? And from CORN no less?
The President must lead.
If the President were to announce this program tomorrow and clearly state that due to the necessity of averting a disaster to the economy and a threat to National Security he will emplace Executive Orders that will not only immediately initialize this overall program but exempt it from excessive or unnecessary environmental regulatory agencies rules where do you think the hedge fund speculators will go, thus dropping the market price of crude by roughly 50 bucks?
They will go straight to that new market of energy production and the companies that will build it, the new technologies that will emerge, as a well functioning "new energy industry" SHOULD be that inviting. Not only will the price start to drop immediately, the very nature of new industry gains and emerging technologies will keep the price down. And, as always, when other nations began to utilize the new and more efficient (higher profit margin) techniques the overall demand will slow.
BTW, as we move into the future and plan ahead we should think about how we use the energy source. Examples... All future power plants should be Nuke or Clean Coal. Reserve the natural gas for heating homes. That will allow more fuel oil to be used in diesel trucks because it is not heating houses. The natural gas can. You can heat a home with natural gas but you can not get the hauling capacity by trying to run the 18 wheeler on it.
Get the automakers together on a relatively cheap electric car and start building the new technology Nuke power plants to handle the extra overnight charging demand. And get the automakers off the shoebox on a roller-skate designs. Hello GM / Ford / Honda your designs are BUTT-UGLY.
Build these and we will buy.
However, you are going to have to give up on the $109,000 price tag. In return we will come off the 0-60mph in 3.9 seconds thing.