How important is energy independence to you?

It is very important to me, to the US economy, and to the planet.

The main reason so little has been done about it is the undue influence of money on the political system, my #1 issue.

Yes, I would support a $1 increase in the gasoline tax to fund investment in alternative energy sources, particularly solar and wind farms, and extraction of biofuel from algae.

Its both. We should find ways to keep our environment clean while securing our energy freedom. Oil is sold in dollars and you know we are making a profit. The companies who drill the oil are largely U.S based and are making a profit. If we increase the gas tax by $1 what are we going to do with that money? Stop building roads is ridiculous. It would hurt this country economically more than environmentally. I don't support any government financial subsidization of any companies who would deal with energy independence. Companies who are skilled enough can raise their own capital and succeed in their endeavors. Besides we are heavily in debt and that should be our primary concern. Importing oil in a way seems like a good idea. We use up their resources and hardly tap into our own.

We have enough resources to become energy independent right now, and yes it is a matter of national security. You see it all the time, Ahmedinijad picks his nose and the price of oil goes up, Hamas shoots a bunch of rockets into Israel and the price of oil goes up. We need to develop our own oil reserves so that when the entire Middle East goes up in flames, we won't be held hostage to OPEC.

Edit: Taxes are fine, but the money never gets to where it was supposed to be used for. There is always some foul up where someone hit the switch wrong and a billion dollars is gone and unaccounted for. So no, to new taxes. Our Government has to run more efficiently, just like they're telling banks they supposedly loaned 700 billion to.

Nothing has happened due to our govt being beholden to the Arabs and the Chinese for buying our now worthless securities. China owns $1.3 trillion of our $10 trillion debt. The Arabs own even more of the immense debt load, but nothing stays congress from passing more and more senseless money eating projects. No, I'm definitely not in favor of any more taxes. The poor stewardship of our economic health is a world wide scandal. Its take little or nothing to tap our own oil and natural gas reserves. All progress is halted by VOODOO science about man made global warming. No such thing. Some environmentalist even support denuding the planet of trees. Weird people. Maybe some sense will invade these ignorant little minded people we've elected.

On a scale from one to ten it should be around a 8 in importance for a 20 year goal. As for getting the money, I'm not opposed to a surtax on all transportation venues that are already taxed and we don't need anymore roads in this country---wider maybe, but not more of them.

every time pass to foodstuff industry and notice what gasoline costs are doing to foodstuff fee it incredibly is crucial. No candidate has spoken in this situation to any degree. Obama did say, as all, he's for capability independence.

I don't know how taxing the bejesus out of Americans will help us become energy independent. Europe taxes energy sources like mad and they're not energy independent. They're beholden to Russia. Drill. Free market. Innovation. Stop the libs from blocking everything.

Well said, Paul P.

There is no need to sacrifice, we have plenty of oil, coal, and natural gas, we could build nuclear power plants, the only thing standing in the way is the environazis and thier imaginary man made global warming religion.

Energy independence is crucial to America regaining the economic powerhouse of the world again.

It seems like 90 percent of what we worry about distracts us from the 10 percent that we should worry about. We all are going to die some day. Shouldn't we all be worried about where we will spend the rest of eternity? It looks like Israel and Iran are on the verge of a full scale war, and possibly nuclear. Notice how India and Pakistan are in conflict again, and they have nukes. Russia also is developing nukes that can make a nuclear war winable. You can die at any minute. Nobody seems to care about that. Our life is fleeting.