Energy Talk - Let's Get Real

OK folks, I've had just about all I can take of the so-called energy debate. I understand that high gas prices are causing real hardship around the country and the poorest people, as usual, are the hardest hit. And this situation surely is not their fault. But let's get real: we have known for as long as I've been alive that the supply of fossil fuels available to us is finite, unless we somehow want to put ourselves in suspended animation for the billion or so years it would take for the earth to turn more organic matter into crude oil.

Our current problems are not really a function of increased demand from the Chinese, or liberals blocking oil drilling, or speculators in the oil market. Our current problems stem from an absolute refusal of our political leadership to form and enact any kind of real plan for shifting the nation from an infrastructure that relies on oil to one that relies on renewable energy. Jimmy Carter tried, Ronald Reagan put a stop to it and no one's had the balls to do it since. That's the reality. No amount of hand-wringing will change the fact that we now have dramatically less time in which to make this transition and that more people are suffering and more will suffer because of it.

So let's stop pretending that any of the short-term measures proposed - gas tax relief, drilling in Alaska, punishing speculators, or even corn-based ethanol (which consumes as much energy as it produces) - are going to solve this problem.

And by the way, if you own an SUV or another gas-guzzling vehicle, you are screwed. Sorry to say "I told you so" but I did (to numerous friends and family members). I advise you to graciously accept the loss you will inevitably take when you trade that sucker in for the smaller Japanese car you know you should have purchased in the first place. And no, my friends, 27 mpg is NOT fuel-efficient. It's a joke. If you are driving a car that gets less than 33 mpg on the highway, you've been had. (By the way, my 1994 - that's not a typo - Honda Accord gets 33 mpg on the highway, so no excuses).

So what do we do now? Well, first of all we realize that Exxon Mobile and the other members of the big oil cabal are not our friends. They will not tell us the truth and they do not have our best interests at heart. They are happily enjoying the biggest profits they have ever earned, alongside huge tax breaks courtesy of their friends in Washington, D.C. So when they say that the technology just does not exist to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, you ask yourself "Well, have we really tried? And should we believe people who stand to make billions if we continue to do things their way?"

Then you take a deep breath and look around and realize that our oil-based infrastructure - interstates, country roads, etc. - was paid for by us: the taxpayer. Big oil, the trucking industry, Detroit did not pay for us to have a car and truck-based economy, we did. They just profit from it. So if we are going to switch to an energy-efficient economy and free ourselves from our "addiction to big oil" we are going to pay for it. Oh I hear all the republicans crying out! Taxes! Taxes! Well, if we spent one month's worth of Iraq spending on re-building our national energy infrastructure, we'd be well on our way and we managed to come up with that money, didn't we? And think of what we could save if we stopped subsidizing big oil.

We need a massive, WPA-style effort to build windmills, install solar panels and rapidly improve the technology for making ethanol from crops that don't require fertilizer, like grass. We need huge programs to help people make homes and businesses more fuel efficient. And guess what? These programs will put people to work, pump money into our flagging economy, address global warming, and (possibly) bring some of our precious nation back from the brink of destruction by pollution and over-development. So if they cost us in taxes and increase our already staggering debt, at least they are an investment that will pay real dividends back to us, the people (unlike the investments we've been making into Corporate America and Big Oil, which, as far as I can tell, have been returning jack).

Will it be easy? Of course not. Few things worth doing are easy. Will it be painful? Sometimes, and more for some people than others. But it will also be exciting, rewarding and fun. All of us feel the anxiety that comes from knowing we are living a lifestyle that cannot last. We get in our cars and drive to the mall, and part of us wonders "How much longer can this go on? What happens after it's all over?" Let's stop wondering and worrying. Let's stop waiting for a scientist to discover a solution. We already have the solution. Let's take the Nike pill and "Just Do It."