A man living on the other side of the world can (and routinely does) reach out and grab your wallet whenever he wants.

The leaders of oil producing countries can do this because America is addicted, addicted to foreign oil. Yet, we can break our addiction, but we&8217;ve got to take some baby steps initially.

Interestingly, Mississippi and Louisiana could lead the nation in taking steps toward energy independence.

After decades of teeter tottering back and forth for spots No. 49 or No. 50 in national lists, Mississippi and Louisiana can finally zoom to the top of a list.

Both states could lead the nation in mandating increased use of alternative fuels.

While on the surface, such government involvement into the economy seems to counter to our usual &8220;the less government, the better&8221; approach, but in this case getting the states involved in necessary.

Expanding tax incentives for alternative fuel producers and mandating consumer usage could make a massive impact on the state&8217;s economy in two ways.

First, the reducing the dependence of foreign oil will eventually make the entire U.S. economy more stable.

Second, since many of the biofuels use agricultural products as their base, the agricultural infrastructure already in place could become even more vital if biofuels are more widely utilized.

The need is here; the solution will take a bit of vision &8212; and a nudge from the state.