Zakaria - Mile by Mile, Into the Oil Trap

Another solid article by Fareed Zakaria: Mile by Mile, Into the Oil Trap

If I could change one thing about American foreign policy, what would it be? The answer is easy, but it's not something most of us think of as foreign policy. I would adopt a serious national program geared toward energy efficiency and independence. Reducing our dependence on oil would be the single greatest multiplier of American power in the world.

He ends with this bullseye:

We don't need a Manhattan Project to find our way out of our current energy trap. The technologies already exist. But what we're searching for is perhaps even harder: political leadership and vision.

Actually, I think we do need a Manhattan Project. The coming oil crises have the potential to be catastrophic. I believe it will take an Apollo-style effort to bring real solutions on-line in time.

Yet Zakaria is right. Finding the silver bullet is putting the cart before the horse. What we need first and foremost is real leadership.