The concept of “energy independence” is often touted in political rhetoric, but what is energy independence? It is when one’s energy system is independent. Simple as that.
That means there are no imports or exports of fuels. There are no imports or exports of parts and supplies. All the transport infrastructure is made in one’s country and maintained completely with the country’s indigenous parts and its own citizen labor. That would include pipelines, oil tankers, barges, trucks, rail networks, LNG carriers and whatever else is used to move fuels. All energy storage devices and fuels would need to be made in the country. All IT systems would need to be created and run internally. All the water and other raw materials for making and processing the energy needs to come from inside of the country.