The Best-Laid Plans

What do Richard Nixon, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all have in common? The decades long dream of energy independence.

BY CHARLES HOMANS | JAN/FEB 2012

BARACK OBAMA
"It falls on us to choose whether to risk the peril that comes with our current course or to seize the promise of energy independence.… America will not be held hostage to dwindling resources, hostile regimes, and a warming planet." (Jan. 26, 2009)

The goal: Cut oil imports by one-third by 2025.

The plan: Stimulus spending on renewable-energy research, tax credits for home energy efficiency, a cap-and-trade system for reducing carbon emissions and making renewable energy cost-competitive, expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling.

NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

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Charles Homans is a special correspondent for the New Republic and the former features editor of Foreign Policy.