GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is calling for U.S. energy independence by 2020.  While he deserves kudos for taking an important step that will elevate energy in the national debate that accompanies presidential elections, Romney's plan is too tepid, and as T. Boone Pickens points out, it ignores natural gas in the mix of energy resources that need to be exploited. Although establishing target dates for the accomplishment of major policy initiatives involves some degree of guesswork, in this instance it pays to be aggressive.  The United States faces a myriad of problems that make the rapid deployment of our national resources toward achieving energy independence a must.  Topping the list are chronically high unemployment that threatens our way of life and federal deficits in the trillion dollar range as far as the eye can see that are leading us toward insolvency. In 2008, the year Barack Obama was elected president, the U.S. imported almost 13,000,000...(Read Full Post)