By Richard Billies of AllThingsPoliticalToday.com

Here we are once again, looking at gas prices rising on a daily basis and heading to $4.00 and beyond. Once again, politicians of both stripes are calling for a new energy policy. Haven’t we heard this song before? And what do we get? The same old regurgitated energy plans are reintroduced over and over again.

We have become trapped in a maze of policies and regulations that were crafted by the energy companies and the politicians. Their goal seems to be to confuse and deflect any new ideas in the energy area.

On the one side, we have the extreme environmentalists who believe that energy production is always a risky proposition. They have taken the high ground of moral righteousness. Gaea, the Earth Mother, is their main concern. Human beings are peripheral to their vision of the future.

On the other side, we have the extreme exploiters of the country’s resources. Their goal is to pump as much as they can, as fast as they can and make as much as they can.

Somewhere in the middle are you and I, the consumer-citizens of the United States. We’ve heard the endless arguments put forward by both sides. On the one side, we have the proponents of wind and solar power who actually believe that these two sources of energy can supplant fossil fuels.

They will do everything in their power to prevent the spread of fossil fuel use. The rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline is one such victory for this group. The prevention of drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge(ANWR) was another. Drilling off the continental shelf is a mortal sin for them. The sight of Chinese oil drilling platforms, licensed by Cuba, off the Florida coast will drive this bunch off the deep end.

While the forces of prohibition force energy companies into contortions, our national wealth is being exported to countries that simply don’t like us but are willing to take our dollars. The lack of a coherent energy policy has placed this country in a precarious and dangerous position.

First and foremost, as a country we need to take ownership of our sources of energy. Any leases on Federal land belong to the people of the United States; not to the government, the politicians or the energy companies. Congress is so quick to form government-owned companies like the Postal Service, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, yet when it comes to a tangible resource like energy, they lease it out or not in a flash.

Let’s form a public-private corporation and give every taxpayer one share of stock. Why not? Mexico does it, Russia does it and so do many other countries around the world. Energy is the most important resource a country can have. Look at China. They’re like the world’s biggest panhandler when it comes to energy because they don’t have enough to fuel their industry or consumer sectors. India is in the same position.

I’m not suggesting that we nationalize all sources of energy. LikeDon Barzini says in The Godfather, “…after all we’re not communists.” The corporation would control the sources of energy, the distribution of energy and the marketing of energy.

For instance, we need to convert all of our automobiles to natural gas. It’s cheaper, it’s easier to distribute and it’s cleaner than oil or coal. Why do I say coal? Where do you think all of the electricity to run those expensive cars will come from. Why, coal-fired power plants. Why are we spending billions on research and development of electric cars when we could already be exploiting the most plentiful energy resource that we have: natural gas?

Here’s the problem: oil companies don’t want to switch the American automobile fleet to natural gas. They’re making more money with crude oil and they already own the means of production, distribution and marketing. With a public-private corporation, let’s call it USA Energy, competing with them for the automotive fuel market, they would be forced into offering it to consumers.

This is just a single thought but as a country we need to get back to Yankee ingenuity. We need to start thinking outside of the box because as Americans, that’s what makes us exceptional.

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