The Skaff Energy Policy

My biggest concern surrounding the entire election is the stance on energy. McCain appears to want to take the shotgun approach and see what sticks, but the main focus is on off-shore drilling. The experts have said that beginning a drilling program to tap into those oil reserves would take ten years to see results. That is just not going to help right now when we need it. Obama's plan seems to shift weekly from one thing to another.

The U.S. needs a focused plan that makes sense and the government is going to have to oversee it. We are living in a time where everyone should see what a lack of oversight has done to the economy. Since we do not live in a free-market society any longer (investors can short sell financial companies, government will soon be purchasing another 1.4% of the total market (not including AIG and portions of Citi - via the Wachovia buyout, and the other debt they have taken on in the pre-"official bailout plan" era).

SIDE NOTE: To my Republican or just anti-Clinton readers - I do not understand how anyone can just blame all of the current economic collapse on policies and deregulation during the Clinton administration. The Republicans have been in office for eight years, during which the first four of those years, both houses of Congress, the Executive branch and Judicial branches of the government along with the media were under Republican control. If they thought those policies were wrong, there was plenty of time and they had the power to force a change. Their hands are just as dirty as anyone else's in this problem. END SIDE NOTE.

Here is my all-inclusive problem solving plan to solving nearly all of our current problems. If we were to shift focus from off-shore drilling to alternative sources - nuclear, wind and solar energies, then focus on building a national energy network. This country would produce hundreds of thousands of jobs which would stimulate the economy (a la FDR and LBJ style of national infrastructure plans during difficult economic times) and converting the country's resources from oil to alternatives. If we were to share these technologies with China and India, oil becomes universally less important. Without the Middle East holding the oil resources over the world's collective head, the region will become literally irrelevant. I am well aware that this would take a considerable amount of time (probably 20 years), but if we were to start something like this soon we would at least have some form of direction. This country has just been wandering in fifteen different directions for a decade now. It's time to move ahead and put all this petty partisan crap aside and make this happen.