The U.S. Declaration of (Energy) Independence

Editor’s Note:

The Globalist has adapted the language of the original Declaration of Independence — written and adopted by the Continental Congress in 1776 — to muse upon a pressing contemporary issue. We have added or changed 309 words (marked in italics) and struck a total of 863 words. In our version, the new U.S. Declaration of (Energy) Independence now runs 784 words, instead of the original 1,338 words.

In Congress,
The unanimous Declaration of the 50 United States of America —

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the economic bands which have connected them with another — and to assert among the powers of the earth, a separate and equal access to the energy resources necessary to preserve that people’s standard of living, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men have equal need for energy, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of their financial well-being.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever dependence on the natural resources of undemocratic nations becomes destructive, it is the Right of the People to abandon it — and to begin the quest for stable and renewable sources of fuel elsewhere, laying a foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness and Comfort.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that dependable sources of energy, long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer fluctuations in oil prices and dependence on oil imports, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of oil shocks and political arguments, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce our nation’s economy and foreign policy to dependency upon others, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such dependency, and to provide new sources for their future energy security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of this country; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their state of dependence upon oil.

The history of the present energy crisis is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute reliance on oil from undemocratic regimes in the Middle East and elsewhere. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

These oil-producing Countries have collected themselves into a cartel, contrary to the public good of this nation.

They have controlled the world’s fuel market, and set its prices.

Their political instability and infighting has required the use of the troops — and thus, the Public purse — of our nation to secure and protect the very resource which they then sell to us, and upon which they base their economies.

Our repeated efforts have been answered only by repeated injury. A situation is thus marked by every act which may define a complete dependence, is unfit to be the fate of a free people.

We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold the nations that sell us oil, as we hold all of our adversaries, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of this country, solemnly publish and declare —

That the United States are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent and self-sufficient in generating energy for our industries and personal use; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to OPEC and other oil producers, and that all economic connections involving the purchase of this natural resource, are and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States —

they have full Power to explore the universe for new and clean and cheap sources of energy — including the sun, the wind, and hydrogen, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.