• The first thing I will do as President is send Congress my comprehensive plan for energy independence. We will achieve energy independence by the end of my second term.
• Achieving energy independence is vital to achieving success both in the war on terror and in globalization. Energy independence will help guarantee both our safety and our prosperity.
• We have to explore, we have to conserve, and we have to pursue all avenues of alternative energy: nuclear, wind, solar, hydrogen, clean coal, biodiesel, and biomass.

Energy independence has been on our "to do" list for over thirtyyears, my whole adult life. In 1973, in response to OPEC's oil embargoagainst us, President Nixon established Project Independence, whichpromised independence in 1980. We could have been energy independent ageneration ago! The truth is, we are so pathetically behind the curveright now that federal spending for energy research and development isonly 40% of what it was in 1979. Our efforts are haphazard and oftenpointless: today we have six million flex-fuel vehicles built to run onbiodiesel or on E85, which is 85% ethanol, but only 1,413 pumps forthose fuels in a country with 170,000 gas stations.

When energy shocks and crises come, we take aspirin to deal with thepain, but we don't address the underlying symptoms. This oil addictionis killing us. We have to stop popping pain pills and get ourselvescured. For all these years, we've never lacked the means, just thewill. We've never harnessed the real energy source that independencerequires - the energy of the American people.

The first thing I will do as President is send Congress mycomprehensive plan for energy independence. I'll use the bully pulpitto inform you about the plan and ask for your support. I'll use thebully conference table to meet with members of Congress until I havethe votes. The plan will get underway during my first term, and we willachieve energy independence by the end of my second term. The HuckabeeAdministration will be remembered as the time when we finally, finallyachieved energy independence.

We have to explore, we have to conserve, and we have to pursue allavenues of alternative energy: nuclear, wind, solar, hydrogen, cleancoal, biodiesel, and biomass. Some will come from our farms and somewill come from our laboratories. Dwindling supplies and increasingdemand from newly-industrialized countries of fossil fuels are drivingup prices. These price increases will facilitate innovation and theopportunity for independence. We will remove red tape that slowsinnovation. We will set aside a federal research and development budgetthat will be matched by the private sector to seek the best newproducts in alternative fuels. Our free market will sort out what makesthe most sense economically and will reward consumer preferences.

We think of globalization as primarily an economic issue and the waron terror as primarily a military issue. Yet the same key unlocks thedoor to success in both, and that key is energy independence.

None of us would write a check to Osama bin Laden, slip it in aHallmark card and send it off to him. But that's what we're doing everytime we pull into a gas station. We're paying for both sides in the waron terror - our side with our tax dollars, the terrorists' side withour gas dollars.

Our dependence on foreign oil has forced us to support repressiveregimes, to conduct our foreign policy with one hand tied behind ourback. It's time, it's past time, to untie that hand and reach out tomoderate Muslims with both hands. Oil has not just shaped our foreignpolicy, it has deformed it. When I make foreign policy, I want to treatSaudi Arabia the same way I treat Sweden, and that requires us to beenergy independent. These folks have had us over a barrel - literally -for way too long.

Energy independence will ease the effects of globalization becausethe future energy demands of countries like India and China, as theirmiddle class grows, are going to be tremendous. Even if Middle Eastsupplies remain stable - a huge if - that increased demand will driveprices up dramatically, which will hurt our economy by makingeverything more expensive here. But if we are energy independent, wewill be able not just to take care of our own needs and protect oureconomy, we will also create jobs and grow our economy by developingtechnologies that we can sell to the rest of the world to meet theirneeds.

Achieving energy independence will make us safer and more prosperous, and is yet another way that I intend to lift America up.