Energy source search continues

By William Wilke, Bettendorf | Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The question raised is “Do you enjoy the economic pain of soaring oil prices and ever increasing reliance on foreign oil?”

Does it worry anyone that the ripple effect of increasing oil prices is felt not just in higher prices at the pump and heating costs but throughout the economy? This is reflected in higher prices for food, plastics, airline tickets, trucking, paper, and the list continues.

The next question is, “Do you feel comfortable with the fact that we rely on foreign sources for over 60 percent, or about 12 million barrels of oil?”

How much of our destiny economically and militarily do we want to place in the hands of Venezuela, Nigeria, Ecuador, Russia and certain Middle Eastern countries? I believe most Americans would say, “not much.”

The final question is, “Do we want to control our own destiny?”

We should commit to immediately embarking upon a course of action to become energy independent. We must concentrate on developing and using another energy source; fossil fuels, solar energy, wind farms, nuclear power, and hydroelectricity. Not only will we gain energy independence, we will also stimulate our economy.