Electric stuff is great, and it's very hard to refine your own oil. You can, however, distill alcohol relatively easily, and a lot of stuff will run on that.

As far as independence, the problem is not with electric equipment as much as the fact that a) batteries die and are hard to make and b) electric stuff tends toward cheap Chinese crap that is difficult to repair. They do make really reliable and long lasting electric tools. Just not the lawn mower most people pick up from wal*mart.

Electric stuff is great, and it's very hard to refine your own oil. You can, however, distill alcohol relatively easily, and a lot of stuff will run on that.

As far as independence, the problem is not with electric equipment as much as the fact that a) batteries die and are hard to make and b) electric stuff tends toward cheap Chinese crap that is difficult to repair. They do make really reliable and long lasting electric tools.