Yes, we are a debtor nation. We are debtor nation because we are a nation of energy gluttons and pigs who must have our instant gratification and we must have it now. Converting all petroleum powered vehicles to CNG would be a good start on what we need to do. If we had started 100 yrs. ago when Edison's electric car was competing against Ford's internal combustion engine we'd be sitting pretty good about now if Edison's car had won out. If we had started 40 yrs. ago, during the gas crunch of the '70', when most of Europe and Asia listened to the wake-up call that we ignored we wouldn't be sucking hind tit to them right now. Bottom line is we don't have a hundred yrs. to do this, it doesn't matter how much we have in reserves. And even if we did have a hundred years we wouldn't try to start until year 99, and then everybody would be crying about "why didn't the government do something earlier?".illinoisfisherman wrote:It's not just about jobs or "use their's first". It's about transfer of wealth. Listen to T. Boone Pickens. He advocates using our natural gas and changing out transportation fleet to run on natural gass. What was the numbers he quoted? 750 billion dollars a year was leaving this country @ $125 a barrel for oil. We are a debtor nation folks. We are all paying interest on that debt daily. Drill ALL our oil, tap our natural gas, federally tax what leaves our country to help with the national debt and stop all that money from leaving our country!
EVENTUALLY we will change to a greener country and not have the need for fossil fuels as we once did. Why not use our supplies before that day comes? If we change our energy needs in 100 years (and all reports say we have much more coal, oil and natural gas than a 100 year supply) what good will massive reserves of these resources do when the need no longer exists?
Seems like just plain common sense to me, but wait..... That's right! There is very little of that in our government.

It's not just the government's responsibility to be good stewards of the natural environment; it's everyone's. We need to get the U.S. off it's petroleum crack habit.