North American energy independence is a stated goal of those who believe that the North American nations - the USA, Canada and Mexico - must eliminate their reliance on oil purchased from outside the continent. A related, less absolute, policy may be called North American energy security. In 2012 in an editorial in a Canadian newspaper, Mexican president elect Enrique Peña Nieto, called North American energy security a "common goal" of Canada and Mexico.
The benefits are argued to be the reduction of North America's energy dependence on unstable regions such as the Middle East and South America and limiting oil imperialism to the North American Free Trade Area, reducing exposure to terrorism abroad; lower balance of trade and foreign exchange stresses on the U.S. economy in an era when suppliers may begin to price oil in euros; the development of renewable energy sources to displace fossil fuels; and the promotion of energy conservation and technology (such as insulation, green roof, and lighting efficiency) exportable to energy-poor nations.
The Apollo Alliance, a coalition of businesses, strategists, labor unions, and environmental organizations is advocating a ten-point plan for energy independence. Another group is the Set America Free Coalition formed by prominent individuals and non-profit organizations concerned about the security and economic implications of America’s growing dependence on foreign oil.
In a 2012 poll of energy experts by Foreign Policy magazine, almost two-thirds of respondents said energy independence was not a sensible goal.
Read more about North American Energy Independence: Context
Famous quotes containing the words north american, north, american, energy and/or independence:
“The Anglo-Saxon hive have extirpated Paganism from the greater part of the North American continent; but with it they have likewise extirpated the greater portion of the Red race. Civilization is gradually sweeping from the earth the lingering vestiges of Paganism, and at the same time the shrinking forms of its unhappy worshippers.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“The discovery of the North Pole is one of those realities which could not be avoided. It is the wages which human perseverance pays itself when it thinks that something is taking too long. The world needed a discoverer of the North Pole, and in all areas of social activity, merit was less important here than opportunity.”
—Karl Kraus (1874–1936)
“The American West is just arriving at the threshold of its greatness and growth. Where the West of yesterday is glamorized in our fiction, the future of the American West now is both fabulous and factual.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“Reckoned physiologically, everything ugly weakens and afflicts man. It recalls decay, danger, impotence; he actually suffers a loss of energy in its presence. The effect of the ugly can be measured with a dynamometer. Whenever man feels in any way depressed, he senses the proximity of something “ugly.” His feeling of power, his will to power, his courage, his pride—they decline with the ugly, they increase with the beautiful.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so important, as living within your means.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)