Breaking the hold that Middle Eastern oil has on America should now be seen as a patriotic imperative that can end the main supply of cash for terrorists and make this nation stronger economically. But greater energy independence cannot occur merely or even primarily through more domestic drilling for oil; it requires a plan dedicated to increasing conservation and efficiency, to supporting alternative fuels and a renewed awareness of the costs of current energy policies.

The United States holds about 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves but uses about 25 percent of its oil. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as a bill approved in the House last August would do, could provide a small, temporary amount of relief from dependency of OPEC, but closing the fuel-efficiency loophole for SUVs and light trucks would permanently save more oil than the refuge could produce. A Senate bill that closes the loophole, sponsored by Sen. Olympia Snowe, along with a larger bill, the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Investment Act (S. 1333), which she sponsored with Sens. Jim Jeffords, Joseph Lieberman and John Kerry, offer a realistic plan for increasing energy independence while increasing efficiency.

In fairness, the House bill, which includes $27 billion in subsidies for traditional energy producers but only $6 billion for conservation, was passed before Sept. 11. It rewarded further oil dependency when breaking free of it still could be considered a personal virtue rather than a national requirement. But now that the White House and Congress have a deeper understanding for how oil dependency has shaped U.S. policies in the Middle East and now that they have seen what U.S. dollars going to the Middle East have purchased, there no longer is any excuse for not investing in the technologies that will free the country from this trap.

The Senate bills that emphasize conservation and efficiency are the right way to go. A recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists finds that in two decades alternative fuels could meet 20 percent of electricity needs, saving consumers $440 billion annually. Further achievable measures could mean that rather than building 1,300 new power plants, as Vice President Cheney proposed to do, the nation could meet energy demands by building a couple hundred while retiring 180 old coal plants, which are responsible for more deaths and ill health annually than all the nuclear plants have been in their history.

As important, bills like S. 1333 help make the nation more energy efficient, which make it more productive, and allow it to catch up to Europe and elsewhere, which long ago realized that using less energy to get goods to market made those goods more profitable.

Maine Sens. Snowe and Susan Collins have been leaders in the Senate on energy bills and their votes are crucial for promoting a sensible long-term energy strategy. Their constituents should applaud them and urge them to press their colleagues to support a strategy that cuts off this nation’s cash contributions to worldwide terrorism.