We send billions of dollars each year to overseas countries to buy oil and many of those countries use that money to fund activities that may be directly at odds with the best interest of the US. A case in point would be the Wahabbist Saudi Kingdom funding Taliban activity in Afghanistan and sponsoring hard line Muslim schools teaching an anti-Western doctrine in Indonesia, Pakistan and other countries. Hugo Chavez uses our oil money in Venezuela to further his ambitions of an Anti American socialist South American continent.

How can we keep our money at home where it belongs? One way is to use less. We drive the most wasteful cars in the world. Technology such as the Toyota Prius, if adopted by even half of the drivers would be like taking one quarter of the cars off the road.

Another technology that holds promise is gas to liquids conversion technology. Using natural gas, which is plentiful in North America, we can make ultra low sulphur diesel and gasoline. Liquified and compresses natural gas can also be used directly as a motor fuel as they are in the city bus fleet of Dallas and other cities, reducing pollution as an added benefit.

Lately oil man T. Boone Pickens has been advertising his plan for energy independence. It begins with building enough wind farms along the wind corridor, which runs from Sweetwater Texas to Canada, to supply 20% of our energy needs. Once that is done then 20% of the natural gas we are using in power plants can be diverted to motor vehicle fuel. Between natural gas powered vehicles and hybrids we should be able to reduce our imported oil by as much as half in the relatively short term of ten years. Beyond that, as more efficient vehicles such as plug in hybrids come along we will see the hope of energy independence.

Shale formations such as the Marcellus shale hold trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. Some energy experts believe that we have over two hundred years of clean burning natural gas locked in such shale formations. This may be our best way to reduce imported oil.

Solar panels will continue to become cheaper and cheaper and rooftop solar may one day be on every home that gets enough sun, powering both the home and the family car that is plugged into the home's electrical system.