Energy policy in the US has been a key issue to homeland security for decades. Why has this issue been ignored for so long? What has happened to other more reasonable types of energy?

Big oil has had the ear of the US government for many years and it has effected our policy;  both abroad as well as here .  Recently, we have experienced the crunch of a failed energy policy and it has created mass panic and chants from the uninformed "drill, baby, drill". Is this the answer Americans need?

Americans are under the impression that  drilling in Alaska will solve the current  energy crisis and we will be able to continue with our lives. NOT TRUE! Deregulation has once again masterfully strangled the American public.  Juhasz  explains how deregulation has lead us to our current demise.

"The most important thing, of course, that explains it is the trauma to all of the financial markets. And these are-these markets, of

course, are intimately linked. As I said, most of the energy trading is coming out of oil companies, banks, hedge funds. The banks are also morphing into oil companies. So, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, in

particular, buying up oil fields, buying up pipelines, becoming oil companies themselves, as a way to solidify their income base.  But the price has been so volatile, because the energy traders are trying to figure out how best to capture and hold onto their profits in a completely unregulated, thoroughly manipulated market. I

think we can definitely expect a continuation in the fluctuations, but most likely, the price is definitely just going to go up and up and up.

But also, to say that the last time that oil surpassed, or the first time in fact that oil surpassed $100 a barrel, was in 1981. That

set off a global recession, from which, in particular, the developing countries are only beginning to emerge from. We have now, of course,entered into another global recession, based on, I would argue,primarily, the first impact being the price of oil going up. This is a

resource to which we have to have control. We have to be able to regulate it. It cannot be being manipulated by Big Oil, big banks, for

their interests, as opposed to larger global and social interests".

So, you may ask which candidate can I trust to take us ahead with a NEW energy policy? Who can rid us from our current dependence on oil? Lets follow the money.

" Exxon-Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP/Shell, also Marathon and Valero, are the biggest companies operating in the United States. The profits are unparalleled, with the defense industry, pharmaceuticals, banks, you name it, no comparison. So this money just infiltrates every layer of government, from

the most local level-I tell the story of Richmond, California, near where I live-to the state level, federal, international, and permeates,

not just in campaign contributions, which of course is important-so far, about $1.6 million by the oil industry to McCain-Palin, a little

less than $400,000 to the Obama-Biden ticket, a pretty clear difference there, about 75 percent of oil given to Republicans overall. But campaign contributions are just the very tip of the iceberg. It really is lobbying, where the big money comes in. It's the front groups that you don't even know are associated with the oil industry, where the

influence comes in".

It is clear, that with the merger of banking and oil, along with the powerful lobbyists ,that WE must demand other forms of Energy become both developed, and available for consumption. This is a matter of grave importance for the planet ,for our security, for our economic well being. It is also of grave importance to our free markets. Only regulation can resuscitate our failing ideas that were written on parchment so long ago.

"The free market punishes irresponsibility. The government rewards it-- Harry Browne