Mr. LASORDA: Well, ethanol is one, because we see ethanol as an option from oil independence and national security play.
But now, because of the whittling by Congress, the "energy" bill seems to be more of an "oil independence" bill.
In fact, oil independence is a chimera for America and China alike.
South Sudan took with it nearly three-quarters of Sudan's oil production when it declared independence and the two sides fell out over how much the South should pay to export its oil through Sudanese pipelines.
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Remember all that talk about the importance of energy security and independence from foreign oil?
But he also drew cheers for a promise to seek energy independence through more oil drilling, nuclear power, clean coal, renewables, and flex fuel and hybrid cars.
South Sudan took with it nearly three-quarters of Sudan's oil production when it declared its independence two years ago.
The territory is counting on offshore oil and gas to speed its way to independence.
For Greenland, the prospect of oil revenue is tied to its aspirations to independence.
The SNP has said it would like to see an oil fund set up in the event of independence to provide a revenue stream for future generations of Scots.
Now, that will have a tremendous impact not just on Americans and their pocketbooks and wallets in terms of the cost of fuel and how much they spend on it, and that will be significant savings for the American people -- it will also enhance our energy independence by reducing our demand on oil and, therefore, demands for foreign oil imports.
For southerners looking forward to independence, the thought of losing any oil is upsetting.
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He is against the gas tax and for increased domestic oil drilling, especially if it leads to energy independence.
Others would argue that energy independence is the goal, and that trading oil imports for ethanol imports does little to achieve that.
And I think that tells you that the way to insulate ourselves, the way to insulate the American people from these kind of price shocks, is to increase our energy independence, to reduce our reliance on foreign oil, to increase our capacity for alternative energy production as well as traditional fossil fuel production.
Based on current trends, the south is likely to vote for independence in 2011, threatening to take Sudan's oil-wealth with it.
So when we pursue energy independence, when we continue to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by increasing domestic production of fossil fuel energy but other forms of energy, we enhance our security and protect America's future in that way.
However, the authors of the DHI's academic paper say the independence debate is "an unwelcome note of uncertainty for the oil and gas industry", at a time when it thinks it has finally got an understanding in Whitehall of the need for tax and regulatory predictability.
Both have significant oil and mineral wealth, which has played an important role in facilitating their independence.
The danger, though, is that the north will not accept southern independence, especially as the region contains most of Sudan's oil.
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But, it says little about the future prospects for this whole Gulf of Mexico play as a game changer for U.S. energy independence from the increasingly unsettled Middle East where so much of our oil comes from.
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His grandfather, he says, was a host of the country's reformist leader, King Amanullah Khan, after it gained independence from the British in 1919, and imported fuel, cooking oil, foods, technical equipment and construction materials from Iran and the Soviet Union.
But Mr Salmond's independence bid is predicated on a strong financial sector and an upwardly mobile oil price.
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In the years leading up to independence, Indian artists often rejected the styles, techniques and even the oil-on-canvas medium taught by the country's British-bred art schools.
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The year-old paper said the volatility in projecting North Sea oil revenues created financial uncertainty and, although an oil fund - which the Scottish government has said it wants to set up after independence - could increase stability, it might mean spending cuts.
Third, and most important, Timor-Leste's oil-and-gas income is relatively modest, and started to flow only after independence.
At independence, Nigeria's six states were each allotted a proportion of the oil money, managed their own funds and contributed an agreed amount to the federal government.
That geographic and infrastructural reality is old news, but up until very recently, the conversation around the referendum focused on the possibility that independence could bring a new class of investors into the south, namely major oil and construction companies who have been cut out by the U.S. sanctions on Khartoum.
It's not that independence would necessarily upset the applecart, as the Scottish government, headed by an oil economist, appears to be alert to the industry's need for consistency.
Upon independence last year, South Sudan took 75% of the formerly united country's oil reserves, and oil accounts for 98% of the new state's revenues.
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