What Is ‘Energy Independence’?

"Energy independence" was a buzzword of the presidential campaign, but, as Michael Kinsley and Roger Sant point out in today's Washington Post, every president since Nixon has promised it. "Despite all the rhetoric, we are twice as dependent," they write, as we were 35 years ago. It seems more feasible now, however, than it has been in previous years: The security and economic issues around energy make protectionism more likely (never mind that Canada, not Saudi Arabia or Venezuela, is our largest supplier of oil). This is fine so long as our efforts are on reducing consumption of oil, rather than simply finding new sources. "The only way the United States alone can weaken the economic and political power of oil is to reduce the amount we use, regardless of where it comes from. So consuming less oil—as opposed to replacing imported oil with domestic supplies—should be the goal."