The simple arithmetic of oil reserves and markets places these options within our grasp - but only if we reach for them, ideally in partnership with other oil importers. OPEC and big oil companies want expensive oil; the rest of us ought to want affordable fuels.

Every serious nation except the U.S. has an energy policy -- we need one. Obama's economic advisers appear not to want to even discuss the idea.

Companies like Daimler U.S. in Portland make natural gas trucks; ask them what they need to sell more and their answer is crisp: "pumps, pumps, and more pumps." Most truckers who want to save money by fueling with natural gas can't, because there are not CNG or LNG outlets on their routes.

While renewable energy still retains a "too expensive for a poor country" reputation here, the reality is that short-term solutions to Pakistan's energy poverty almost all will come from efficiency and clean energy.

When it comes to clean energy, those of us who are die-hard supporters are relentlessly fighting to see our big dreams become a reality. We all know that we can make our country cleaner, healthier and safer.

T. Boone Pickens plans to move into using wind power to back out natural gas currently used for power, and then using the gas to replace imported oil.

Flying to visit his wind operations in Sweetwater, Texas, T. Boone Pickens makes it clear that his next wind project is big, Texas-style -- 4,000 megawatts up in the Panhandle north of here.