The United States must develop a comprehensive energy strategy that will bring down prices for electricity and gasoline and stop our need to send billions of dollars overseas to foreign countries for our oil needs. The plan must include oil (oil sands and shale included), natural gas, solar power, clean coal and nuclear and wind energy. That plan must also recognize the environmental benefits of alternative energy including nuclear energy and hydropower and include a diverse national mix of clean electricity sources. However, billions of dollars subsidizing alternative energy sources has been shown to be counterproductive and will only be possible when economically viable. A responsible energy policy should permit both offshore drilling and drilling in areas of the country that have previously been off limits. We need to lay more pipelines, build more nuclear power plants, and allow more drilling to spur economic growth.
The strategy must:
Increase domestic supplies of coal, oil, and natural gas.
Provide tax incentives for production.
Promote environmentally responsible exploration and development of oil and gas reserves on federally-owned land, including the Coastal Plain of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Offer a degree of price certainty.
Advance clean coal technology
Expand the tax credit for renewable energy sources.
Prevent government agencies, such as the EPA, from putting forth regulations based on their own and the current administration's liberal and unproven ideologies.