Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

Republican presidential front-runner Rudy Giuliani "called for a national campaign to achieve energy independence" during a visit to Missouri today. He cast energy indepence as a national security and economic issue rather than an environmental issue, pushing for a strategy that includes clean coal technology, ethanol, solar, wind and nuclear, according to the Associated Press report:

The former New York mayor said a national program to tap new energy sources, akin to the 1960s technological race to beat the Soviets to the Moon, would give Republicans a positive issue to stand for in the 2008 White House race. ... "Energy independence, I think, is the single most important thing that's going to face us in the next four or five years aside from the terrorist war on us," he told about 200 Blunt supporters who paid $250 each for the event.

He said energy independence was linked to national security issues because dependence on oil means the U.S. and its allies have to pay money to "our enemies," including Iran and Venezuela. Giuliani said energy independence was also a goal that could drive technological innovation and create new industries and products that the U.S. can sell to the world. He mentioned clean coal technology, ethanol, solar, wind and nuclear as energy sources that need to be developed.

"Energy security is one of our answers to globalization," he said. Instead of being afraid of the economic growth of China and India, he said the U.S. could push ahead of other nations in new energy technology and sell it to them. Giuliani said it "kind of embarrasses me" that Brazil is ahead of the U.S. in ethanol production and use.

We'll know if Giuliani is serious if he goes afoul of Iowa corn farmers and the American corn lobby and proposes adjusting the various subsidies and tariffs that prop up American corn-based ethanol and holds back from the American consumer the better more energy-efficient sugarcane-based ethanol from Brazil.