Our challenges regarding energy issues must be attacked wherever it makes sense to do so. The most glaring of these issues is our dependence on foreign oil. This dependence is a genuine threat to our economy, the national security of the US, and our way of life. We’ve seen what oil embargos can do to our economy. The fact is we are still relying on oil imported from countries that may or may not have America’s best interest at heart. A malicious decision by even one of our largest oil importers can have immediate and severe ramifications.
To deliver solutions to these challenges we need to produce more oil domestically while using innovation to maximize the efficiency of how we use this precious resource. Additional offshore wells combined with new technologies to efficiently pull oil out of recently developed discoveries can contribute to our domestic oil supplies and reduce our need for imports.
Taking on a project of this size requires ambition and foresight but this is what we as Americans have historically done. We have to use all of our available resources and innovate wherever we can to return this country to oil and energy independence. One such opportunity exists in the area of clean coal. America sits on huge deposits of this resource and by implementing new ways to burn coal efficiently and cleanly we will be able to use this energy in a wide variety of applications.
By incorporating other technologies including alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, natural gas, etc., we can continually increase the amount of energy that is available from domestic sources. In addition to achieving energy independence, this development of new energy sources could provide a huge boost to our job market by providing employment with solid earnings potential.
About Steve Daines: Steve Daines is a fifth generation Montanan, and Vice President and General Manager of Asia-Pacific for Bozeman-based RightNow Technologies, is a candidate for Congress in Montana.