Socialist Energy Policy

(There's no such thing as a partial bridge)
Now is an opportunity for President Obama to forge the national energy policy this country needs. Since we (as a nation we) are only ready for grand solutions when presented with grand problems - its certainly now. The Gulf Oil spill is: unprecedented, will continue to be a disaster for the people of the Gulf Coast for decades, more than BP can pay, the turning point for U.S. energy policy - ?

This can be a transformative moment in U.S. history.
The Tea Party crowd (no, they are not an actual political party!) and the Republicans paint Obama as a socialist. But who else is going to create national energy policy?

Lets think about how the Tea Party would construct an energy policy. At the "state" level, keeping our 10th amendment rights in the forefront..

Think about this: You want to build a bridge to get from Point A to Point B. Across a raging river with whitewater rapids.

Do you built it incrementally, piling stones up at one side?

You can never get there. And if you try, you'll fall into the water.

You have to architect the bridge. You have to have the materials. The expertise. A Plan.

Point A - where we are now
Point B - where we will be with a national energy policy

My Siberian Umbrella

Rain streaks across the cracked windshield of my car streaming down I-5. Endless spring really summer but when its in the 40's at night its like a non-season.

I tried being a "true Oregonian" today and walking without an umbrella. Can't say I like it much. I prefer my trusty Siberian umbrella, which was left behind by a 7th grade Russian exchange student, literally from Siberia, back in the day (90's day). It is industrial strength and yet beautiful. I am convinced it will last forever and I haven't lost it yet which never happens to me.

Does rain falling naturally, without banging into a machine constructed around a (hybrid!) internal combustion engine, or seen by human eyes on cultivated straight furrows of crops, fall in a less linear pattern?

I was thinking about Russia today as my colleagues were bantering about the Gulf. Will it ever recover? This is not an "existential BP" issue only, as Interior Secretary Salazar has said. This is an issue for: fishermen whose livelihoods (and identities) are likely lost forever, a region known for seafood and hospitality, a nation that supposedly climbed out of the industrial revolution to the more evolved post-industrial society.

Well here we are, ravaging the Gulf as Russia ravaged its environment cranking out tanks during the Cold War.

And we won't even have any beautiful flowered umbrellas to show for it. Only dead shrimp and greasy pelicans.

Enter the Law of the Sea

Today on cspan - National Press Club - University of Virginia - Center for Oceans Law & Policy

What is our obligation for the common sea? The countries of: Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Syria, and the US of A - what do we have in common? None of us have signed the international Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Globalism is here. Are we a terrorist state?
Why is it BP's responsibility to shoulder all costs for {the Gulf cleanup, remuneration to fisherman for loss of livelihood, shore cleanup}..?

Didn't U.S. policy run rampant to encourage drilling, oil consumption without regard to environmental or worker consequence? Our tax laws have incentivized oil development, construction of our interstate highway system, has enabled Hummers, SUVs, and exurbs.

We sip oil as we sip water, like we are the only privileged nation on the planet, privileged individuals, who have a right.

It is time (long past time, but still) to join the global community.

SUVs - just say no. Hummers - just say no. Signing the international Law of the Sea convention - just say yes.

To Obama: fuel efficient standards you brought out today - wonderful (I'm sorry it has taken a crisis to do it, but I am glad nonetheless). Please continue to do whats right for the planet. Not for U.S. oil drillers and the Hummer manufacturers. Your attempt to pander to the Republicans to get them on board with a comprehensive energy bill - nevermind that.

Comprehensive energy legislation is one of those "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" things you speak of.

So ok - do it step at a time. Today - fuel standards. Tomorrow - ocean treaty.

Topic for tomorrow - water consumption as if the rest of the world matters.

A Bolt in the Road

One hundred years ago (1910) the road I walked across was not there. A bolt, greasy, fallen from a truck, lies there.

Oil. BP. Coal. Massey Energy. Cars. Toyota. What do all these things have in common. Besides their appearing at Congressional hearings today.

Our energy policy, our transportation methods, are killing the planet, killing workers, killing drivers.

Is there another path? Why didn't Henry Ford foresee where all this would lead - carbon building in the atmosphere choking our civilization, U.S. businesses out of control - fighting regulation so long and so hard that they finally gain the upper hand and government tries to - like a parent who has let his kids have parties all weekend while he goes off to play golf in Bermuda - come home and re-engage the parenting. Will it work? Can we strive for regulation that is meaningful without choking innovation and creativity?

I don't blame Henry Ford and his assembly line. No one can foresee where wind and solar energy will be one-hundred years from now.

But, one-hundred years from now, when my great-great-granddaughter finds a filamint from a solar panel that came down in a storm lying on the bike lane, I wonder what she will think?