1) We could cut 40% of oil imports by switching fleet vehicles to compressed natural gas (cng). This could be done within 5 years.
2) We could have 20-25% of vehicles switched to diesel in another 5 years. You make 20 gallons of gasoline out of a barrel of crude, but 27 gallons of diesel out of a barrel of crude. More fuel per barrel, more miles per gallon, thus cutting most of the remaining imports. Germany already does this with 85% of their cars running diesel, they basically cut their imports in half by doing so.
3) We can make synthetic oil, diesel, and gasoline from our abundant coal reserves and from greenhouse grown algae.
4) In order to save our coal for synthetic fuels and plastics, we could build 100 new nuclear power plants in the next 20 years and have no coal buring plants, cleaner air.
5) Additional power can be made from wind, tides, and solar.
All this can be transitioned in 20 years, no new technology, just common sense approaches.
Once the trade deficit is fixed by our own energy production, then a lot of our other problems will begin to be fixed, like good energy related jobs with benefits like health care.
