You have mixed many issues together here. However, I would agree with you that our national energy policy (which is really a collection of hundreds of individual actions, laws, regs etc.) is ineffectual at best.
Moreover, in spite of rising prices of many energy sources, many impediments exist for lowering the cost of energy accessed and used.
A friend who has the experience to talk, spoke to me about the costs and time to build a nuclear power plant. It seems that on average it takes 15 yrs, only 4 of which is the actual building of the plant. The 11 is for the lawyers and interest groups to fight over.
Apparently over half the cost of building are soft costs to obtain approvals.
If this is true, it shows how ass backwards the process is.
Of course, I always blame the Greens and their lawyers. These folks have an agenda and I assure you it is not aligned with most of us. And as usual, the costs of this insane process is borne by the consumer, not the Greens.
Aye Carumba!