Social Engineering
That is what the government aims to do with its legislature.
After writing that last post, I’ve been thinking about putting down some more thoughts…
So why not help us reduce our dependency on crude oil? Lobbyists. Old money. It’s really too bad that power corrupts. Because here’s what someone who really wanted to buck the trend could do:
- Significantly raise taxes on gasoline. Why? Cause it would lower demand for it. Simple economics. Europe’s been doing this for years. Gas prices are like $7-8/gallon over there.
- Create incentives for fuel miserly cars. Along with the tax increase on gas, this would encourage a lot of us to start using more fuel efficient cars. That right there would lower our consumption.
- Fund research for alternative biofuels. Ethanol from corn is not the be-all, end-all cure. In fact, as we’ve seen recently, it creates more problems than it solves. First off, by using a human food source as a fuel source, we create supply problems. Corn farmers race to grow more corn because it sells better, which in turn causes them to abandon other crops. This raises the cost of food for everyone. Rice is at record prices right now. Second, there are more efficent biofuels out there. We need to reduce the leveraging power of lobbyists. And get people who know what’s going on to help solve this problem.
- Fund research for more green technologies to generate electricity. Put more funding into solar-cells. There’s so much energy from the sun. And we don’t have to mine for it, refine it, transport it. Just convert it into electricity. We need more research in storage of solar energy. Just one example of a benefit: During summer months when electricity demand is at its peak due to cooling needs, solar power is also at its best in keeping up with this demand. IMO wind and hydro aren’t as viable because there just aren’t many sources of either. You need specialized locations. But with solar, anywhere there’s sun (basically everywhere) you can generate electricity. We just need to increase our funding to make more efficient, economical, robust technology.
- Fund research into alternative energy storage systems. This ties into the solar power entry above. If we can generate a significant amount of our energy from the sun, we need better methods to store that energy when the sun is not shining. Currently, it’s very energy inefficient to create hydrogen, but with the right methods, hydrogen generation could be a very viable way to store the energy generated during the day from solar panels. Our cars at that point in time could be hydrogen powered, and that would be another method to eliminating our vehicular pollution.
We have the money, we have the scientists interested in doing this research, we just need our politicians to give us the respect and integrity we the people of earth are entitled to. Do what’s right for us, your constituents and not those that line your pocketbooks. Yes, in the short term raising taxes would make you unpopular. We would suffer as well. But in the long run, this is what’s necessary! We’re so focused on the short term these days, we don’t know how to make decisions for the future. Look at the Bush administration. There’s no long-term planning. There’s no big picture. Just deferring the debt til the next president has to deal with it. Do what’s RIGHT. Not what’s easy. Not what’s popular, but what’s truly right.