"What you want can't be done." Sure it can be done...just like we put a man on the moon when people said it couldn't be done. Obama can sign a presidential order stipulating that all government buildings, institutions, military bases, all government contractors, etc., must install solar panels, those panels must be made designed and manufactured in America and installed by licensed American contractors and American labor...and also implement wind energy, natural gas cars...with all that demand for the alternative energy equipment to be manufactured and installed, private industry will ramp up to meet that demand, providing jobs, innovation, competition, an economy of scale to make wind and solar less expensive for the general public, etc. The oil companies won't like it, neither will the gas and electric companies, but who should be running this country? Those corporations or the people who are supposed to represent the people and what is best for America...not what is best for the greedy corporations... Try to imagine actually having an imagination...for a change. Oh, and you didn't answer the question as to why we didn't do anything about our addiction to oil immediately following the oil shock in the 70's...which has resulted in a fucked up foreign policy, billions of dollars wasted in the middle east, etc.
Jimmy Carter tried to do something. He put solar panels on the White House roof, and offered tax credits to anyone who purchased solar energy systems. Ronald Reagan removed the solar panels from the White House and terminated the tax credits. Pretty much says it all, doesn't it?
Why don't you think the solar panel industry would not become as "corrupt" as you think the oil industry is? Government mandates to use only American labor, union no doubt, is just another tax on society. We will have to pay bloated salaries and UAW similar benefits.
The oil industry is corrupt...and they were allowed to get that way via government writing laws promoted by lobby groups, consolidation of the oil companies into huge corporations, etc. To make a solar panel is one hell of a lot cheaper and cleaner than getting one barrel of crude oil out of the ground. America's best times for the middle class were when the labor unions were strong in America. I prefer their "tax on society" to the larger tax on society in the form of increased price of oil, gas, and electricity...and the funding of terrorists by the oil producers in the middle east... Be a freaking patriot for once, and get behind America rebuilding our own industry that makes us self sufficient and liberated from the costly relationship and foreign policy with foreign oil... What is most irritating is the way in which smug bastards of the right wing talk about how America is the greatest country on earth, but when there is a chance for liberating the US from our dependency on foreign energy, these same "in name only patriots" fight real progress for America... Why do you hate America so much and love foreign oil?
I love Alaskan ANWR oil. I love outer shelf oil. I love American Nuclear power plants and the jobs they provide. I love Caribbean oil. I love American and Canadian shale deposits. I hate foreign oil, especially when we defend the middle east and we only get 15% of our oil from there.
Missing from your list of "I love" 1. Natural gas. 2. Solar. 3. Hydrogen. 4. Hydro Electric. 5. Biodiesel. 6. Wind. 7. Methane wells. Let me guess, you would be okay with a nuclear plant next to your home...
I would like this list to become reality but it won't happen for many years (expect gas). In the meantime we need more domestic oil. We all know that Nuclear and chemical plants end up in poorer States and in poorer neighborhoods in poorer States.
Nonsense. It will take just as long to ramp up domestic crude as it will to develop known alternatives...