I do not care what your views are, write your Congressmen/women and make them work for you!
Here is what I wrote mine, recently, regarding energy and Pelosi's recent interview with George Stephanopoulos:
Drilling in new places will take 5-10 years to have an impact (I am in the business and know about such things). The 68 million acres of which Pelosi speaks is not necessarily favorable to hydrocarbon accumulation. The more places drilled without economically favorable results, the higher the prices will be -- like any other product! "Big Oil" is only at most a dozen of nearly 1000 companies drilling for oil and gas today. Did you know that fact? Competition? "Big Oil" has serious competition -- and has to buy from them to feed their refineries ("Big Oil" only controls 10%-12% of the world's supply, a market share too small to control anything)!
Record profits -- rhetoric for the math challenged. XOM profit is at a record high, but still a meager 10-12% net -- their costs are over $100 Billion per quarter. Oil was $12/bbl in 1998, gas was $0.80/gal. Raw product (oil) price rose by 12 times while the retail price only rose 5 times by 2008. I will let you do the math on that one -- it'll be a test.
Further, so few talk about the impact of natural gas for our cars, and nuclear power for our electricity -- augmented by solar, not wind (of solar, wind, and waves as energy sources, wind is by far the least reliable). A move in these directions -- all three -- can break our dependence on foreign oil -- if that is the goal (if cheap energy is the goal, fossil fuels are still the cheapest per output of power). Where is the intelligent talk on electrical cars and the disposal of their batteries (will we want these things in our landfills?), the amount of minerals and resources required to build them (some reports indicate they have a much greater negative environmental impact than conventional vehicles in their manufacturing), the much lower than expected impact of their economy due to the long distances to commute? Where is the encouragement (not mandate, not law, but tax-break) incentives for companies to promote telecommuting on a wider scale? The internet can do so much to get people off the road! Where are the calls for tax breaks for homeowners to install solar panels -- not tax rebates, they carry a cost, but a straight up deduction for the cost of installation (perhaps a helpful percentage of the install cost, or deducting the total cost from annual income).
What about co-gen plants that are successfully generating electricity today, without fossil fuels or resources within the food chain?
The number one driver for conservation -- price. Despite all the rhetoric; not rhetoric, really, but exhortations to conserve, leading up to the recent surge in gasoline prices (which actually only brought gasoline in line with inflation over the last 25 years), conservation did not take place until the prices forces it. Why would the Dems want to encourage more consumption by creating consumer subsidies (redistribution of wealth, a nice communist ideal)? And what are these subsidies she claims the oil industry gets? Why do people think all-electric cars are going to be cheap? Their battery production will be expensive, very expensive, and a disposal nightmare. Further, they will increase loading on our electrical power grid and will increase monthly electrical bills significantly -- and so much of our electricity is fossil fuel powered! We go to more nuclear power, electrical cars make more sense altogether -- except for that nasty disposal thing.
Beware the Animal Farm situation created by the Dems and GOP. Solving problems would liberate their traditional constituencies to go elsewhere, politically. How long have the economically challenged voted Democrat? Even when the Dems controlled Congress and the White House, their situation did not change, and has not. What about the smaller government conservatives? What have they gained by voting GOP? None of us are happy nor benefiting from this two horse race. We need more ideas, more parties. Vote an alternative party. Quit believing the Dems and GOP. Give America more voices with your vote. If you are "left", vote Green or Libertarian; if you are more to the "right" vote Libertarian or Constitutionalist; find other parties to support. Whichever party you decide to support, VOTE!
Solutions are not found in sound-bites, nothing is as simple as the politicians are trying to make it sound; be careful who they are calling villains (when bad guys are calling someone else bad guys, who are the real bad guys and why?).
