Steve Cicala: I think the political consensus is that "independence" sounds good. Economically, "energy independence" is completely vacuous. Oil is a global market whose price is determined by global supply and demand without regard to who is producing it. Prices can take any value with any amount of US output.

On Independence Day, note our progress towards energy independence & a sustainable future for generations ahead. Thanks to 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure & 2022 Inflation Reduction laws, U.S. companies are accelerating in grid batteries to make solar+wind scalable. That's not all...

What is energy independence, and why is it good?

Domestic production. I'm not an expert here but taking a broad political consensus as given. My sense is it's disempowering & decoupling from OPEC states, Putin, MBS, Maduro... bcz many authoritarian leaders use control of fossil fuels for political power & dependence creates undesirable constraints

Also supply chain resilience in the face of production shocks from climate change, geopolitical turmoil...

I think the political consensus is that "independence" sounds good. Economically, "energy independence" is completely vacuous. Oil is a global market whose price is determined by global supply and demand without regard to who is producing it. Prices can take any value with any amount of US output.

I was thinking about it more as reducing US oil demand by expanding alternative supply. There's no change in geopolitical constraints if we reduce demand and substitute toward more clean-energy production?

Tho clearly not the primary reason to shift to clean energy. I mainly wanted to use the "Independence" Day rhetorical hook.

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