by Rob O'Hannon

Created on: November 21, 2007   Last Updated: March 19, 2008

There is one overriding issues for the 2008 Presidential election. It is an issue that has had a dictatorship over the direction of our foreign and domestic policies for decades. It is an issue that damaged American credibility in the world, and has cost thousands of American lives. It is an issue that affects all other issues, and controls the destiny of millions. That issue is energy.

The issue of our energy future is the single most important issue we face, and one that must be resolved within the next decade or we risk catastrophic consequences both economically and environmentally. Yet it is an issue that no candidate is putting at the top of his or her agenda. This is not surprising, as it would take real political courage to challenge the corporations that pour billions into lobbying and political donations. But is absolutely necessary that our elected officials, and each one of us, be prepared to take on that challenge, and accept whatever lifestyle changes are necessary for the greater good.

The quest to secure our oil supplies dictates how our government works, and whom it works for. The quest for oil dictates where we station our troops, what foreign powers we are friendly with and which we oppose, and what our tax structure looks like. "Oil is king", and we are all bowed to its power.

The failure of our country's leadership to recognize this, and break the hold oil has over us by actively encouraging, supporting and mandating new technologies, is one of the saddest ongoing chapters in our history. From being a country once thought to be the leader in new technologies, a country that encouraged inventiveness and innovation, we have become a country that actively discourages breakthroughs that would threaten the energy status quoi.

We allow this to happen when we elected candidates owned by industries that fear competition, as it would threaten their stranglehold on the marketplace. Despite obscene profit margins these same industries demand that their taxes be lowered, all in service of maintaining an energy policy that is rapidly leading us down the path to global war, the first battles of which are being fought in Afghanistan and Iraq right now.

A new national energy policy would call for decisive action to curtail our dependency on oil. New technologies exist that could half our use within 20 years. Would there be a cost to doing so? Absolutely, both in terms of money and time. But the money invested would be returned a thousand fold in terms of new

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