I understood that you didn't really mean "100 percent." But I don't think we're going to get anywhere close to independence for a long time.

It's encouraging to see the market respond to high oil prices with increased exploration and production, never mind a huge amount of enthusiasm for things like hybrid and electric cars. I believe the price of oil is going to stabilize, and probably go down a great deal in the near future. Not as far as it did in the 80s--with China and others there is a real demand issue that will keep prices up.

But the sort of things we'd need to do for maximizing independence are the sorts of things the current political culture won't allow. More oil drilling. Nuclear plant construction. Deregulating the ethanol market.