Balancing Energy Independence with Alternative Energy

In the 2012 US presidential election, one of the hot topics of debate was the future of the United State's energy situation. Romney proposed policy focused exclusively on energy independence, regardless of the source. Under his plan, more subsidies would be awarded to oil companies, and he encouraged fracking as a means to take advantage of the recent domestic discoveries of natural gas. Obama, on the other hand, advocated for alternative, green power to solve our energy problem. This would take more time to decrease our reliance on other countries, yet in the long run makes much more sense to me.

Especially after my pod created our podcast on solar power, my belief that green energy is the future become stronger. Its main issue has been cost, yet that is quickly changing, as in Israel for example, solar power has become almost as cost effective as fossil fuels. It is also obviously much cleaner than fossil fuels, and less destructive. The damages of fracking are well documented, with perhaps the most extreme cases being gas leaking into people's water supplies. What I really can't believe, however, is that fracking was legalized a couple months ago in North Carolina. State Democrats had been blocking it for a while, yet in the last vote held on the topic, one Democratic representative accidentally voted "Ye" instead of "Nay" with the push of a button; hers was the deciding vote. A recount was asked for, but because of a ridiculousness rule stating that a if there was one deciding vote the decision is final, the ban was lifted.