Like my headline?  If I were a politician, I would be a single-issue candidate, and this would be my issue.

President Obama today outlined a plan to reduce importation of foreign oil by 1/3 by 2025. It’s a start.

What would energy security look like? All energy needed to drive a thriving economy in the United States produced domestically from clean renewable sources. That is National Energy Security. We cannot have energy security when we import over half our oil (a finite, nonrenewable source controlled by other nations) and use other finite fossil fuels for the lion’s share of our energy needs. Those sources are not secure.

We cannot have economic security (a thriving economy not subject to the whims of international oil market prices, nor driven by finite fossil fuels) without energy security.

We cannot have national security in the traditional sense, without economic security. Lack of a thriving economy, jobs and tax base, plus staggering deficit spending (driven by gargantuan military spending) and national debt is not a pretty picture of national security. Having our military tied down half a world away protecting our foreign energy sources and irritating the locals while bribing their selfish chiefs and kings is not a pretty picture of national security.

It all goes back to energy security, doesn’t it?  We need a WWII-style, public/private effort to develop clean, renewable energy in the Untied States, and to develop and lay the transmission lines to carry it throughout the country. This effort would in itself be a massive jobs program. The long term benefits to our nation would be immense. No longer would our money go overseas, purchasing the foreign oil we need to keep our economy from grinding to a halt. Our money would circulate domestically and the society would prosper.

Unfortunately there are huge interests aligned against such a program. Giant, traditional energy companies, and the Military/Industrial complex President Eisenhower warned us about so eloquently have perfected the acquisition of vast fortunes and vast power on the back of the status quo. These interests will lobby against any movement away from a fossil-fuel powered economy. The Citizens United 5-4 decision in our Supreme Court gives corporations the right to pour billions of dollars of profits into political campaigns.

It will be interesting to see whether even President Obama’s modest proposal goes anywhere in Congress. My bet is that things will only change for the better if a solid majority of this nation’s voters conclude that energy security = economic security = national security. There is a lot there for ordinary people of all stripes to agree on.

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