Schweitzer, a plain-spoken Westerner who is the first Democrat to lead Montana in 20 years, tutored Utah's Democratic Party leaders in the realities of energy and politics.

The nation's dependence on oil can be overcome, he told a small gathering of Utah Democratic leadership, but it will take resolve from Americans, including a willingness to conserve and spend more for alternative energy. Most of all Schweitzer said, it will take leaders with the guts to oppose special interests and tap into American resolve.

Unless that happens, the governor said, American troops will be trapped in the Middle East for generations.

"This is the most strategic place on the planet," he said of the region around Kuwait and Iraq. Iran, which controls the narrow Strait of Hormuz, he says, easily can cut off the flow of oil. "It would cripple the entire world," he said. "We'd be in a hell of a pickle.

"Everyone's talking about when we should leave Iraq," Schweitzer said. "As long as we are dependent on that oil, we will have the next generation - and the next - in Kuwait protecting that oil. You must fix this problem in this generation or the next generation goes to war."

But Republicans, he said, do not seem up to tackling the problem.

Schweitzer joked of the president's most recent State of the Union address in which Bush dramatically declared that Americans are "addicted to oil."

"Who knew?" Schweitzer said.

In an interview following his talk, Schweitzer recalled that President Kennedy's advisors quailed when JFK pledged to put a man on the moon in a decade. But Kennedy pushed forward.

"He took a risk with a public-private partnership. He challenged us and the American people responded. Where is that kind of leadership now?" Schweitzer asked. "We have the technologies [for energy independence]. It's cheaper than going to war. But we need leadership to do this."

Reminding the group of the sacrifices and achievements of the generation of the Great Depression and World War II, Schweitzer said, "The Greatest Generation will be the 18- to 30-year-olds who are going to break our addiction to hydrocarbons."

But it is up to America's current leadership to prepare them, he said, "If we don't invest in their education, we will be in the Middle East fighting a war with your grandchildren."