Hi, I'm Denise, and this is your civic minute.
You hear it every election, energy independence.
It sounds simple.
Drill more, import less, control your own destiny.
But the more you look at it, the more complicated it gets.
The United States produces more oil than any country on Earth.
We're also a net importer of crude over 6 million barrels a day
because our refineries were built for a different kind
of oil than we drill.
We export what we produce and import what we need.
And even at record production, when a round choked off
the straight of our moves, gas prices jumped 45 percent
because oil is priced on a world market.
Drilling doesn't change that.
So what would actual energy independence look like?
Not relying on a commodity whose price you can't control.
It would mean running on energy sources
that don't have a world price because there's nothing to buy.
Sunlight, wind, a battery in your basement.
The only energy you truly control is energy.
You don't have to import.
That's your civic minute.
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