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American Energy
The great majority of American energy comes from foreign oil and is used to fuel our elaborate transportation society. Other fuel sources, even coal, pale in comparison to the amount of oil used every single day. Wars, genocides, and the displacement of indigenous peoples are only some of the detrimental costs that oil has incurred upon America and the world at large.
Because of this high cost of obtaining oil, and the high cost it appears to be having on our environment, many people are beginning to call for clean and renewable American energy to remove our oil dependence on foreign countries that may not have the same human rights standards that Americans promote. It is a slow process that is constantly impeded by the oil lobby on Capitol Hill.
American energy has the ability to become largely foreign oil free is only a few years if necessary. There was a huge drop in oil consumption from 1980-85 party due to a recession, but also because the cars being purchased at the time were much more fuel efficient than their predecessors. People were still driving to work, but they were driving less overall and in fuel efficient cars. The end of the recession spurred the production of larger, faster vehicles that required more gas and the oil chart continues to spike. Unfortunately it may take a much bigger recession to kill our addiction to oil.