US Calling for Less Foreign Oil Dependence?

I never really wanted to comment on US politics or economy but this one, on Pres. Bush speech during his recent State of the Union Address, was really surprising and commendable.

He also mentioned placing top priority on increasing domestic oil and gas production as well as developing cleaner, cheaper, more reliable alternative energy sources. His goal is also quite ambitious, that of reducing imports of Middle Eastern oil by 75% by 2025, which left some energy analysts wondering how he could define this goal when in 2005 alone, US has consumed about 20 million barrels of oil a day; and 60% of which is imported oil.

Pres. Bush' sudden shift of gear now bound homeward also kept some political analysts skeptical that these would only fall among some of his bold promises that never really took off.

But what is new in his current agenda, and this is what I like most, is his proposed increase in financing for clean energy research, this is great and worth looking forward to!

I just hope that this would serve as a good precedence for other countries, especially developing ones like the Philippines, to look closer into their own borders, explore their own potentials and channel more efforts and resources into developing these potentials.

Afterall, the law of social nature is telling us that in times of crisis like what every nation in the world faces today, the only logical, practical and attainable solution that remain is self-sustainability.