On Politics, Energy, and Vision

Something I was thinking about today, while hanging clothes on the clothesline.

The United States built the atomic bomb in five years. The United States went to the Moon in ten.

What if, in light of skyrocketing energy costs, a Presidential candidate announced, as part of his platform for the fall campaign, that, if elected, he would put the same energy and resources into energy independence as the United States has put into developing atomic weapons and putting man into space.

Why expect industry to do it on their own? The oil companies are reaping windfall profits. The oil exporting countries are rolling in cash. Why would they want to do anything that might disrupt their profits?

It’s going to have to come from the government, giving grants to the research universities.

And let’s face it. Anything that can get this country off the oil spigot in South American and the Middle East is a good thing. No foreign entanglements.

But no foreign entanglements doesn’t mean “no foreign engagement.” We can be engaged, because it’s the right thing to do. Right now, we’re entangled, because it’s what we have to do, to feed the American need for energy.

This is investment for the future.

The stump speech virtually writes itself. Four dollars a gallon for gasoline says there’s a problem. It could be five, six, even ten dollars a gallon in a year’s time. That’s not sustainable. So, either deal with the problem now and come up with new solutions that staves off the crisis, or let the crisis happen. That’s the choice.

Will any candidate heed the call?

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

One thought on “On Politics, Energy, and Vision

  1. The manufacturing guys over at Evolving Excellence had a good post today on “big oil” relatively low profit margins, but with a twist. Did you know the endowments of Harvard, Yale, and others went up over 20% last year? Those private universities are just sitting on the cash, while Big Oil is at least reinvesting in new energy sources (even green) and paying dividends to help support little old ladies in retirement. They reference one WaPo article that says Big Oil profit could educate 60,000 kids… well the increasing endowments at Harvard could let Harvard build a dozen more Harvards and educate that many kids each year. Who should get nailed with a windfall profits tax?

    http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2008/06/windfall-profit.html

    Ken

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