Why Energy Independence is on the Short List

When President Kennedy committed America to the immense challenge of developing, in less than a decade, the technology to land American astronauts on the moon, he understood well the stakes. This wasn't simply a gesture of America's pioneering spirit. Kennedy knew what it would mean strategically and economically if America didn't invest seriously in the Space program in the years following the Soviet launch of Sputnik. And though the bold idea of a moonshot might never have gotten off the ground had it not been for the inspirational leadership of this Democratic president, it surely wasn't just a Democratic project; it was a truly national project, a logical leap forward following Dwight Eisenhower's commitment, in the immediate wake of Sputnik, to significant investments in space technologies and to a greater emphasis on science and mathematics education in America's schools.

There was in those days a very palpable sense - fostered by both Kennedy and Eisenhower - that America could not rest on its laurels, but would have to hasten to innovate and educate in order to remain a world leader.

And today, there is a growing realization in America of the strategic, economic, and environmental risks of our overdependence on petroleum. It is a realization that cuts across party lines: the vast majority of Americans believe it makes sense for our nation to make a serious commitment to investing in new technologies in order to end our overdependence on oil (link) - a dependence which has led to a tragically contorted foreign policy. For the sake of our own and the world's oil-based economy, we continue to protect oil oligarchs who repress their peoples and foment noxious xenophobia.

America will remain beholden to these governments, and that relationship will continue to contribute to the deadly violence that so scorches that region of the world and that has spilled over to the rest of the world, until we have leaders who are serious about ending our overdependence on oil.

True leadership on energy independence will come from Democratic leaders who will once again commit America to the goal of taking a giant technological leap forward in a short span of time.

The Democratic Party will lead the way on energy independence because it is sensible and forward-thinking: it can help grow the economy for everyone and it can help protect the environment for everyone. New technologies that don't use oil or are vastly more oil-efficient and much safer for the environment could be a catalyst for great economic growth in America in the first decades of the 21st century, just as new computer technologies so powerfully drove economic growth in the last decades of the 20th century.