Fred: On the oil front I would like to see refiners get some anti-trust slack. Let them sign long-term (30-35 year) contracts
at $80 to $90 a barrel for ANY AND ALL crude oil or similar refineable substance produced in the United States or contiguous states.

Once the equipment gets manufactured we will be running a surplus before you can say “Santa Rita Number 1″. In fact we will be soaking the motorist in order to pay producers to keep it in the ground until needed.

Strong medicine, especially that ANY AND ALL
bit. But most necessary in order to avoid having increased production result in lowered revenue for the producers. (That latter is what started our over-dependence upon imports.)

Conceded, your $60 a barrel is plenty for business as usual. However, I do not want business as usual, I want to demolish decades of (*&^%$)#@ and do it with overkill. And to be sure that when the contracts finally expire the producers can be debt-free if they so choose.

I know that this is similar to autarky, but that cannot be helped so far as I can see.