Generally speaking, however, oil actually has very little influence on the power industry. As a fuel source, oil-fired generation accounts for only 1 percent of the nation's electricity production.

Those who claim that we need to use windmills to reduce our oil imports - you may have seen a commercial or two - are confusing cars and trucks, which run on liquid fuels, with power stations that produce electricity - principally from solid and gaseous fuels.

That is an important distinction to keep in mind. Lumping together transportation and power generation muddles a debate that is already muddled to begin with.

It is bad enough as it is, because our habit on energy issues is to talk past each other, to fall back on time-honored slogans and to reach for illusory remedies.

Such has been the way of things for a long time in this country, and it contributes mightily to the policy failure.

That is, if we had a policy - a national energy policy. Which we do not.

Jon Stewart - a product of Virginia higher education, I might add - has a way of getting to the heart of our national problems. Not long ago he ran a series of recorded clips from a few of our presidents.

I took notes. I always take notes during "The Daily Show."

"Let us unite in a major new endeavor that in this bicentennial era we can appropriately call 'Project Independence.' " - Richard M. Nixon, 1973

"We must wage a simultaneous three-front campaign against recession, inflation and energy dependence." - Gerald Ford, 1975

"Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people, and the ability of the president to govern this nation. This effort will be the moral equivalent of war." - Jimmy Carter, 1977

"We will continue to support research leading to development of new technologies and more independence from foreign oil." - Ronald Reagan, 1981

"There is no security for the United States in further dependence on foreign oil." - George H.W. Bush, 1988

"We need a long-term energy strategy to maximize conservation and maximize alternative sources of energy." - Bill Clinton, 2000

"This country can dramatically improve our environment, move beyond a petroleum-based economy, and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past." - George W. Bush, 2006

"For decades, we have known the days of cheap and easily accessible oil were numbered." - Barack Obama, 2010

Over this same nearly forty years, our oil imports have almost doubled.

Now - to me - this suggests a problem. It tells me that we need to unpack the national energy conversation.

First, allow me a point of personal privilege. I have an ingrained, deep-seated, personal bias: The numbers must add up.