Energy is...

Energy is our economy:

If you talk about our energy prices and alternate fuel sources, you are talking about our economy. Drilling at home adds jobs, reduces the cost of fuel, and gives every person more disposable income. If we are building windmills, we are adding jobs, researching technology, reducing prices, and strengthening our economy. If we are building nuclear power plants, we are adding jobs, lowering demand for oil and as such, reducing the price of oil. As the price of oil decreases, so does the price of food, gasoline, and just about anything else you can think of. There is petroleum in the plastic of a bottle of water and soda. Not to mention the machinery used to make the bottles, and the trucks transporting the bottles (all for a bottle of water). We use oil to transport our food, and we use oil to process our food. We use oil to make pasta from grain, and we use oil to irrigate our farm lands with fertilizer made with machinery that requires oil. Oil is an embedded cost in everything you buy. They don't use sailboats to transfer coffee from Colombia to each Starbucks. If you have an understanding about energy, you understand our economy.

Energy is our national security and foreign relations:

If you talk about our energy prices and alternate fuel sources, you are talking about our national security and foreign relations. Everyone has heard that we send $700 million to people 'that don't like us very much' per year by purchasing foreign oil. The truth is we get a lot of oil from Canada as well. But the overwhelming amount of oil we get from the Middle East, Russia, and Venezuela makes that claim more than accurate. OPEC will not let the price of a barrel of oil go below $100 ever again. Just today they cut production as it was dropping to $104. Supply and demand should dictate prices, not dictators themselves. The USA consumes 25% of the world's oil. If we increase the amount of domestic oil, nuclear/solar/coal/wind power we use, we reduce demand and lower the price of oil and reduce Islamic Fascism's budget. If the United States demanded less of the world's energy (because it made its own), emerging economies worldwide would not be slowed by the over indulgence of American consumerism due to high prices from high demand. If it were not for oil, Russia would not have invaded Georgia with such determination and resolve. If you have an understanding about energy, you understand national security and foreign relations.

Energy is education:

If you talk about our energy prices and alternate fuel sources, you are talking about education. Local school districts require school buses, that require fuel. More and more money is shifted to transportation costs (with half-empty buses) every year which takes out money from the best performing teachers, and the classroom in general. We don't need more money for the local schools, we need to reduce transportation and heating costs for our schools. Not to mention the lumber that is cut with chainsaws, transported in trucks, and made in factories into paper to write on and make books. If you understand energy, you understand how it effects our children's education.

Energy is our social security:

If you talk about our energy prices and alternate fuel sources, you are talking about our social security dilemma. When you hear about record oil profits, ask yourself: "If we had invested social security taxes in energy stocks even three years ago, would I be worried about the status of social security?" Not to mention, as wind plants, gas pipelines, and coal plants are built, why would we not invest in our energy with our retirement funds. Rather than scorning energy companies for their profits, perhaps we should be taking advantage of them as well. Why aren't our 401K's invested in the oil companies? Not a single oil company is just invested in oil. They are energy companies. If you understand energy, you understand social security.

Energy is our national deficit:

If you talk about our energy prices and alternate fuel sources, you are talking about our budget deficits. If we were putting more people to work on our own oil fields off shore, building our own natural gas pipelines, building nuclear power plants or mining coal, we would be collecting more payroll, property, and other taxes. Because we import so much oil, we are not putting people to work and are missing out on all that revenue. We don't need to raise taxes, we need to keep them at the level they are at (or lower them), and put more people to work giving us energy. Oil companies have about a 50% tax rate as it is. We need them to do more business in the United States, not raise taxes on them. A smaller deficit leads to a stronger dollar, which leads to the cost of oil dropping even more. If energy/oil is cheaper, the cost of defending our nation is cheaper.

Oil will, for a long time to come, be a key part of our energy solution in America. An all of the above solution is required today. Each of these categories above could be elaborated on even more, and there are more categories I am sure. Increasing taxes does not create jobs, drilling for oil while building other energy infrastructure does. I would ask that you decide which candidates (at the local and national level) provide the best common sense and time sensitive energy solutions for America. Regardless of your personal 'key issue', it is tied to the price of our energy. Let's drill baby drill, lay pipeline and railway, and start today. From poverty (energy prices, home foreclosures, etc) to national defense (the price of the fuel in our tanks and fighters), energy is...