Hillary and Reducing Oil Dependence

Maybe it's naive, but I have to say I was surprised by how small the split was between Clinton and Obama in the Texas Democratic primary. Regardless of your political party preference, I think we can all agree that the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is going to be interesting.

While glancing around iTunes, I found a recording of a speech by Hillary Clinton made May 23, 2007, entitled Cutting Oil Consumption on Half. The main idea: with the ideas Senator Clinton has proposed, she projects that the United States can cut oil consumption in half over the next two decades. How does she propose we do this? Two words: innovation and efficiency.

Both innovation and efficiency were cited many times as methods of reducing U.S. oil consumption and overhauling energy policy. Among the ideas mentioned were biofuels (though only cellulosic ethanol, despite the American Public Media announcer hinting at corn ethanol), CO2 sequestration, solar and wind energy, and conservation.

Worried about the economy? Senator Clinton claims her proposals will actually boost the economy by "getting more out of less, not getting less out of less" and creating lots of technological "green" jobs - "green-collar jobs" in her speech March 4, 2008, speech on CNN.

National security? According to Clinton, we can fix that too with a proper energy policy that doesn't undermine our foreign policy and national security.

My favorite part - Senator Clinton called out who's responsible to take action on energy policy: everyone. Not only does Washington need to overhaul energy policy, we the American people need to participate and start making energy-conscious decisions through conservation and consumerism.

This makes me curious how Senator Clinton's energy policy ideas will (or won't) change as her campaign continues. Actually, at the end of the speech, Clinton delicately dodged a question about her running for President in 2008. Hmm...

If you've got about an hour, check it out on iTunes (it's free). There's even some Iraq war protesters in the middle.