"We need to become energy independent or at least aspire to that"
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Friedman’s line is doing a neat, almost lawyerly trick: it sells ambition while insulating itself from accountability. “We need” carries the moral urgency of a national emergency, but “or at least aspire to that” quietly walks it back into the safe realm of vibes. The hedging isn’t a flaw; it’s the point. It reflects a very American appetite for bold-sounding goals that don’t immediately require painful tradeoffs: higher energy prices, new transmission lines, permitting fights, lifestyle changes, geopolitical repositioning.
The phrase “energy independent” is also a political talisman, not a technical endpoint. In an integrated global market, you can pump more domestic oil and still feel price shocks from OPEC decisions or wars. Independence is less about isolation than resilience: diversified supply, smarter grids, storage, efficiency, and the ability to decarbonize without handing leverage to petrostates. Friedman’s wording banks on the public’s intuitive link between imported energy and vulnerability, a post-1970s hangover that resurfaces whenever gas prices spike or a conflict interrupts supply routes.
As a journalist, Friedman is signaling a centrist pragmatism: he wants to push policy directionally without getting trapped in the details where politics goes to die. The subtext is that the U.S. has treated energy as either an economic commodity (cheap!) or a culture war symbol (drill vs. regulate), rather than as strategy. By lowering the bar from “become” to “aspire,” he’s translating a complex systems overhaul into a story Americans will accept: reclaim control. The irony is that real control comes from interdependence on better terms, not a fantasy of going it alone.
The phrase “energy independent” is also a political talisman, not a technical endpoint. In an integrated global market, you can pump more domestic oil and still feel price shocks from OPEC decisions or wars. Independence is less about isolation than resilience: diversified supply, smarter grids, storage, efficiency, and the ability to decarbonize without handing leverage to petrostates. Friedman’s wording banks on the public’s intuitive link between imported energy and vulnerability, a post-1970s hangover that resurfaces whenever gas prices spike or a conflict interrupts supply routes.
As a journalist, Friedman is signaling a centrist pragmatism: he wants to push policy directionally without getting trapped in the details where politics goes to die. The subtext is that the U.S. has treated energy as either an economic commodity (cheap!) or a culture war symbol (drill vs. regulate), rather than as strategy. By lowering the bar from “become” to “aspire,” he’s translating a complex systems overhaul into a story Americans will accept: reclaim control. The irony is that real control comes from interdependence on better terms, not a fantasy of going it alone.
Quote Details
| Topic | Vision & Strategy |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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