Eighty Years (or so) To The Big Zero

I got this email from a relative who generally speaking is a decent person. But they are rather right of center on a lot of issues and so basically swallow most of the verbage that comes from the Republican base without question. The email was basically a petition to start drilling here, start drilling now and the tag line - Pay Less! (http://www.americansolutions.com/) This is my reply.

— Start of Email Reply —

“What about renewable solutions like solar and wind? What about spending billions on advancing unknown technologies that haven’t been invented yet on a consumer scale?

We’re spending 12 billion dollars per month* in that country for a resource that will be burned away and in the meantime it’s killing our planet because of the way we use it.

12 billion. Per Month. (How much is a billion? If it was a billion minutes ago Jesus Christ would still be alive.) We’re talking 12 billion. How many indoor ski resorts need to be built in the desert?* 

What if we turned that money around to this country - not for oil companies - but for the innovative part of our nation, the inventor, the entrepreneur, the research? What if we didn’t allow automotive companies to purchase battery companies and kill the technology so they could continue making gas cars and then later sell that battery company to an oil company who effectively buried the technology. (See “Who Killed the Electric Car.”)

What about stop going for the quick fix and look at the long term consequences of our decisions? What about seeing a bigger picture beyond the immediate and realize that drilling for oil here still doesn’t resolve the larger issue - Energy is still needed 200 years from now.

How is it that we’ll go 9 trillion dollars in debt for war (defense contractors) and yet won’t spend a dime at home to implement universal health care for all citizens? Why is a person’s health/life subject to the mechanics of profit in this country? Hey, let’s start small. How about a national voting standard? Paper ballot. Scan machine. Exact same design and layout. Across the entire nation. No matter where you go the ballot looks exactly the same. They do it with Wal-Marts, Targets, Publix, Starbucks all over the place. Our government can’t fix this simple problem? Perhaps they don’t want it fixed. Perhaps it’s easier to manipulate when there are so many varieties. (See Hacking Democracy)

I will not support any effort that advances the status quo and puts even more money into the pockets of corporations that already have most of the money anyway. There is a drain of money in this country and it’s heading upward. The recession we are experiencing has everything to do with our National Debt, but also in the practices of corporations who milk the system for as much money as possible regardless of the consequences. They basically pulled an Enron (See “The Smartest Men in the Room.”) on the nation. And the money they made isn’t going anywhere to help people. It’s being hoarded. It’s not going back into the system. Why is it that congress gets a raise pratically every year* and yet minimum wage has barely moved? If minimum wage had risen equally with the pay of CEOs it would be 23 dollars an hour*.

Here’s something every AMERICAN (and person on the planet) should see. It explains a lot of why things are the way they are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dmPchuXIXQ - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBZne09Gf5A - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjUrib_Gh0Y - Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BVNN1wqw3k - Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPPFgHF9VR4 - Part 5
(I recommend the entire movie but it may be too much for some. So if you see nothing else check out the videos above.)

There are a lot of great things about this country. Our enslavement to corporate interests disguised as national solutions is not one of them.

What’s sad about this is that none of this is new. It’s been known about for a very long time now the direction things were going (See 1976 movie Network) and yet it wasn’t stopped.  People were protesting and up in arms it seemed almost daily during the 60s and 70s because of the wars, civil injustices, and eventually high gas prices in late 70s. I remember waiting in line for gas on US 1 at the gas station across from the bowling alley in Stuart, FL. I remember people complaining and being mad. What I don’t remember is a peanut president who had an idea about renewable energy being driven out of office with laughter and slick media images of hostages being freed, and the bold initiatives and leadership he started washed away in the short term memory of public apathy. Just think if twenty years ago we had changed the course of our energy policy instead of snuggling back up to the teet of oil where this country would be? Where the world would be?

-Me

References and resources
12 billion per month - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/10/studies-iraq-costs-us-1_n_90694.html
Million, Billion, Trillion  - http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/Taxes/million.htm
Ski Resort in the desert - http://www.snopes.com/photos/architecture/indoorski.asp
Who Kill the Electric Car - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed_the_Electric_Car%3F
Hacking Democracy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacking_Democracy
Minimum Wage - http://www.drummajorinstitute.com/congress/billdescrips/?billid=9  (Check out the column to the right.)
Congress pay raise - http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/agencies/a/raise4congress.htm (BTW - our elected representatives get life long health insurance just for serving, even one term. That’s why there is no health care crisis. The important people are already taken care of.)
The Smartest Men in the Room - http://www.reelviews.net/movies/e/enron.html
Network (1976) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_(film)
Jimmy Carter address to the nation (July 15, 1979) - http://inspirationalspeakers.wordpress.com/2008/02/04/jimmy-carter-energy-and-the-national-goals-a-crisis-of-confidence/
I pulled a select quote from his speech in case you didn’t want to read the entire address he gave.
“In little more than two decades we’ve gone from a position of energy independence to one in which almost half the oil we use comes from foreign countries, at prices that are going through the roof. Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous toll on our economy and our people. This is the direct cause of the long lines which have made millions of you spend aggravating hours waiting for gasoline. It’s a cause of the increased inflation and unemployment that we now face. This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our nation.
The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our nation. These are facts and we simply must face them.

What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important.
Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977– never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade — a saving of over four and a half million barrels of imported oil per day.
Point two: To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my presidential authority to set import quotas. I’m announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow. These quotas will ensure a reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit.

Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation’s history to develop America’s own alternative sources of fuel — from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun.”

—– End of Email —-

Thinking out loud