We need a new plan
To paraphrase Albert Einstein, we can’t expect to solve a problem using the same thinking that created it. I fear that this is the approach Washington is taking regarding oil prices. The suggestions come from our elected leaders is mind numbingly foolish. “Let’s drill in ANWR!” “Let’s make oil out of coal!” “Let’s tell the Saudis to open up the spigot!” These ideas are coming from the industries and their political supporters who have profited generously during our descent into total oil dependence. I think it’s safe to say they won’t be helping us dig back out.We need to change the way we think about energy if we’re going to flourish in this century. At a personal level, it’s about changing your relationship with your car and your community. Driving to the big-box store to save a few dollars doesn’t make sense if it costs you $10 to get there. Communities will contract out of necessity and we will all find ourselves walking or bicycling for our daily errands. Urban living will see a rebirth as the economic balance of life in the suburbs starts to make a turn. This transition will not come easily, or without cost, but it will come nonetheless. It’s difficult to keep the suburban dream alive at $4/gallon. It’s all but impossible at $8.
On a state and regional level, we will need to start diverting precious tax dollars from highways to railways. Passenger train service is woefully inadequate in most regions. The trains that do run are slow, outdated, and expensive. Anyone who’s traveled in Europe knows that we’re stuck with decades-old technology. From an energy perspective, trains are the most efficient transportation alternative (far better than cars & airplanes). From a time perspective, the city-to-city service of a high speed train will beat today’s air travel for all but the longest routes. Even though an airplane travels faster while in the air, it also requires slow speed travel to the airport, then hours of sitting still as you wait to board the plane. I would gladly trade a few minutes travel time for the convenience of a train.
At the federal level, what we desperately need is leadership. Jimmy Carter proved in the 1970s that we’re able to drastically reduce our energy usage through coordinated efforts. [insert interesting statistic here]. Sadly, since then we’ve been driving on cruise control without a strategic energy plan. (Unless you count the energy strategy written in secret by Dick Cheney & friends during the early 2000s.) During WWII, Americans gathered together to show genuine national pride. Food and fuel was rationed, so people compensated with novel programs such as the “Victory Garden” grown in back yards. There’s nothing stopping us from doing this again, save a near total vaccuum of leadership in Washington.
As we enter the 2008 presidential election season, you can be sure that oil and energy will play a leading role. Don’t be fooled by the short-sighted advice of the petroleum pushers who put us in this mess.
Filed under energy, politics, suburbs : Comments (2) : Jun 17th, 2008 by tadfad
June 19th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I love the graphic, but I think it would be better if it showed a map of the United States wallowing deepest in the oil, with China and a few other countries falling in right behind it.
August 10th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
[...] on the heels of my last post, President Bush is calling for offshore drilling as a solution to our oil woes. Just in case you [...]