Romney’s speech in New Mexico on energy policy

You can listen to Romney’s speech here. Overall, his proposals strike me as reasonable and dedicated to embracing the free market energy sources as opposed to a government-managed and controlled energy sector. This provides a stark contrast to Obama on energy.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case with Romney, he steals a measure of defeat from the jaws of victory. The theme of his Hobbs speech (complete with banners) was “Energy Independence by 2020.” This is silly. Robert Bryce, an excellent free market energy analyst has written a book on the topic.

Energy is no different from any other item that is traded across national boundaries. Even if America is “self-sufficient” in terms of energy insofar as it can produce as much energy as is necessary, the idea of “independence” makes it sound like trade in energy is a bad thing to be avoided when it actually helps us all.

In terms of his specific policies, Romney is right on in urging completion of the Keystone XL pipeline, reforming the federal permitting process, and eliminating the wasteful subsidization of wishful energy technologies. For more on Romney’s speech and the reaction to it among attendees, check out Capitol Report New Mexico.