Imagine if the Continental Congress declared independence from Great Britain in 1776 and at the same time took away the Continental Army's muskets. What kind of strategy would that have been?

Warren Hudak is the president of Hudak and Co., an accounting firm headquartered in New Cumberland, Pa. (whudak@comcast.net).

While this tactic seems ludicrous, this is the approach that incoming congressional Democratic leaders are proposing as energy policy. While they talk about "energy independence" they are also signaling that they will take away the best available means of achieving any level of energy security.

The next House speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, has outlined an agenda for the first 100 hours of the Democratic-controlled 110th Congress. On her blog, Rep. Pelosi says: "We will energize America by achieving energy independence, and we will begin by rolling back the multibillion-dollar subsidies for Big Oil."

The subsidies Rep. Pelosi talks about include tax breaks for refinery expansion and for geological studies to help oil exploration. Also included is repealing tax credits for companies that choose to drill domestically instead of going abroad. And most ridiculous is Rep. Pelosi's support for a "windfall profits" tax on energy companies.

How will America's energy supply and energy producers be energized by taking away incentives for producing/developing fuel within our own borders and then adding a job-killing windfall profits tax?

Significant increased domestic drilling was almost a reality this past summer when Congress was on the verge of expanding offshore drilling. Expanded offshore drilling would give access to the more than 55 billion barrels of oil estimated in the Gulf and off the East and West Coast shorelines. However, with new Democratic leaders seeking to eliminate tax credits for domestic oil exploration, expanded offshore drilling looks as though it's dead in the water.

A host of Democrats (Rep. Pelosi and Sens. Charles Schumer, Byron Dorgan, Christopher Dodd, Hillary Clinton) are once again calling for a new windfall profits tax. It seems as if these windfall profits proponents lost their notes on the results of President Carter's last attempt at such a tax.

It is widely known from the Congressional Research Service's analysis that the previous windfall profits tax was a complete failure and was finally repealed in 1989. President Carter's windfall profit tax "energized" our energy independence by reducing domestic production by 3 to 6 percent and increasing oil imports by 8 to 16 percent.

As an accountant and tax specialist, I know a thing or two about the cost of administering a tax -- both on the taxpayer and government. The cost of administering the 1980s windfall profits tax was an accounting nightmare, and between 1987 and 1988 resulted in virtually no revenue.

My firm, Hudak and Co., also specializes in company benefit plan services and pension funds -- and a new windfall profits tax on energy companies would hurt consumers not only directly at the pump, but also on the back end as the value of their mutual funds, 401(k)s, IRAs and pension funds nose-dive.

A study by Robert Shapiro and Nam Pham of the Investors Action Foundation from earlier this year found that more than 40 percent of U.S oil and gas company stocks constitute securities held in retirement accounts and pension funds.

This study revealed "on average, state and local pension funds invest more than 66 percent of their assets in equities, including mutual funds and index funds. Across the 50 states these funds hold approximately $64 billion in shares of U.S. oil and gas companies." Thus, new taxes on company profits don't take money just from corporate bottom lines; they also weaken the wallets of thousands of retirees and other investors.

Additional government intervention in the energy sector (whether by additional regulation, mandates or new taxes) will only result in higher prices and slow the entire economy.

Government must realize that crude oil (the main component of fuels) is a commodity that will be required as a fuel source for at least the next 20-plus years. Crude oil is traded in the global marketplace and global demand continues to grow. In the long run, energy independence is impossible and global energy interdependence is unavoidable.

U.S. gas and oil companies might appear as massive corporations, but they are minuscule when compared to the foreign, nationally owned oil and gas companies that possess 77 percent of world oil reserves. Our government must support domestic companies and not take away their muskets when they go up against foreign competitors.