This week's Energy Jolt is about wind energy. Wind-generated electricity increased by 45% between 2005 and 2006 and by 21% between 2006 and 2007, more than any other renewable source of electricity in both years. This trend is continuing and U.S. wind energy installations produce enough electricity on a typical day to power the equivalent of over 2.5 million homes. I believe that in the long-run we need to transition away from using oil, which will require more investment in alternative energy and energy conservation technologies as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, and as we all know, as crucial as alternative energy technologies are, the fact of the matter is that wind and solar energy cannot power our cars, trucks, planes, trains, boats and power plants at the moment, or in the foreseeable future. Therefore, in the short-term, we still need oil and gasoline.

The cost of gasoline has gone down recently, but it is still expensive, and will continue to increase in cost once the financial markets stabilize. If we want to bring down the cost of gasoline for good, we'll need to drill in America to increase supply, while we also invest in the renewable energy technologies that will alleviate us from depending on foreign countries. I'll say it again: America can not continue the practice of depending on volatile foreign countires for an energy source (oil) with a volatile price.