There is no political will in the USA to become energy independent. What I would do is to build nuclear power plants near the border in Mexico and then export the surplus power to us.
Only one problem on the practical side of it. They require lots of cooler water and flowing streams or lakes etc for the most part. TVA had to shut down one last week due to high discharge temps on the cooling water side. Building nukes within the U.S. in general isn't catching the political fallout that drilling for oil and building refineries do which right now is what we need. Even more so a decade down the road. That is the key to getting us away from M.E. politics. We need the northern slope of Alaska opened to drilling and the Florida coast as well. Even my state Tennessee has some oil wells in it.
The terrorist can be dealt with by existing laws and means. We got into the terrorism mess because Ford took covert assassinations off the table in dealing with foreign heads of state even though the Constitution allows for this method. Carter then rubber stamped it. We need to learn from our own and others mistakes when dealing with terrorist.
Remember Russia chased Bin Ladden for years in the same region. We need a different tactic to get him like a local mercenary. Our troops are doing their best but they stick out like a sore thumb and he can see them or know about them coming for miles.
I would say build the oil refineries in Mexico but that too defeats the purpose. Their government is corrupt at best and we need to control our own energy policies. We've become a nation too dependent on others for our existence and needs to be met. It is to the point we are doing regular business with those we are most likely to face in war including giving them our technology.