We Need Clean Energy Solutions That Benefit All Americans
Allowing the oil industry to set our energy policy is what got us into this mess. Doing more of the same won't solve our problem -- embracing clean energy options and efficiency will. A serious national commitment to renewable energy will put our economy back on the path to prosperity by bringing energy costs under control, creating over 820,000 new jobs, and making us more energy independent.
The honest answer to our oil problem is to use less of it, and that means better fuel economy and a shift toward renewable energy. Instead of the failed policies of the past, it's time to break our addiction to fossil fuels by shifting our priorities, and our policies, toward clean energy like wind and solar power and efficiency measures.
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OUR CARS WON'T RUN ON WIND OR SOLAR POWER YET!!!
Actually, what got us into being so dependent on oil started long before the government had anything to do with it. The steam engine that ran on coal was more of a beginning to our oil and other not so renewable fossil fuel problem. When Henry Ford's assembly line started up making the new hot item on the market, we got hooked on the much loved and addictive oil. Thomas Edison, among others, were trying to invent an electric car at the time when cars were just catching on. However, by the time Edison got his electric car perfected (for the time), it was already about five years into our addiction. Edison's electric car did not catch on because Americans were not willing to sacrifice their faster combustion engines for Edison's slightly slower, more economically friendly electric engine. If Edison had just perfected his electric car a few years sooner, then we might not be struggling to live a more oil-free life today.
However, we still don't want to have our worlds completely rocked by having to change our pace of life to fit our slower energy source. It would change everything. So, that is why we must stick with finding more oil until we can find a cleaner energy source that is just as efficient.
I have been opposed to expanded offshore drilling on the grounds that it won't lower gas prices. But there's an interesting piece in today's (9/15/08) New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/opinion/15hahn.html , arguing that the royalties and tax revenue generated from developing offshore fields (and ANWR) could run into the hundreds of billions. That's of benefit to the US, even if gas prices remain completely unaffected. The authors go on to suggest that a political deal could be struck, involving investment in alternative energy, protection of other wilderness areas, etc.
The world is going to keep consuming oil until it's gone or it's uneconomical to extract it. Doesn't it make sense to capture some of the economic benefit of that for the US economy, especially if some of those economic benefits can - via political compromise - by invested in other environmentally friendly programs that could potentially far outweigh any degradation caused by drilling?