The Need for Better Energy

Our economy is falling faster than it has in a long time, and energy is one reason for it. The more and more I look into politics the more I find that I do not fall into any typical party, which means that deciding who to support in the upcoming election is very difficult for me. Many suggestions on how to handle the energy crisis have been floating around a lot lately. I do not know much about how energy is handled in our nation, but the following is an idea I have developed. It is obvious that one of the main reasons we need oil is for cars. The government should develop a multi-pronged plan to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. First, the government should set stricter goals for fuel economy than the ones that currently exist, gradually increasing the miles per gallon required for every automobile in the nation. Second, the government should develop a program in which automotive companies compete to create a non-gasoline automobile to win tax breaks, funding, or some other incentive to encourage wide-spread production of the created vehicle. In the meantime, the government should open up more domestic drilling to combat foreign prices. Once vehicles not requiring gasoline have been developed, our government could call off all drilling that violates the current standards, causing a rocket in gas prices because of the need for foreign oil (even with increased fuel economy). This would naturally push consumers into buying non-gasoline vehicles to avoid high gas prices. Enviromentalists would be happy that we weren't polluting the ecosystem anymore, and others would be glad that the U.S. separated itself from relying on the Persian Gulf and other foreign sources for oil. Naturally, this would take time to implement, but I would be willing to wait to see how it played out.