energy policy

Five Things to Say about Clean Energy in Your Address

It is that time of year again. This Wednesday, January 27, 2010, the President will glide down the aisle in the House of Representatives, greeted by thunderous applause, and encounter the usually more dignified elected officials in a slightly teen-bopper, Beatles-esque-frenzy, practically climbing over each other to shake his hand.

He will ascend the rostrum in front of federal government and the nation and proceed to tell us how our country is doing. Within the first five minutes of the speech, President Obama will say the health of our nation is strong - because what else can a President say? The State of the Union address is largely an exercise in tradition. So, why then does it matter what he says?

It matters because behind all the ritual rhetoric lies a pretty good indicator of what the president will focus on in the coming months.

In a scene near the end of The Dark Knight, The Joker has planted bombs on two ferries crossing the river out of Gotham. True to form, the evil-doer has set up a moral dilemma for mere mortals. Passengers on each ferry have the ability to blow up the other boat to save themselves. If neither group acts, The Joker will destroy both ferries at the strike of midnight.

In our own real world, such moral dilemmas face us every day. Indeed, our nation has planted figurative bombs all over the world through our gluttonous consumption of fossil fuels. Today we have the ability to sink whole islands in the South Pacific and melt polar ice caps ... or not.

In his sad vote last week to protect what he believes are the parochial economic interests of the 8th district, Congressman Larry Kissell chose to blow up the other ferry.

Will Senator Kay Hagan have her fingers on the detonator, too?

With all the focus on health care, you may not also realize that the environmental community is in the biggest fight of the decade. The US House will vote on a landmark clean energy package today or tomorrow, an excellent piece of legislation called the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

As you can imagine, Big Coal is mounting a full-court press and several of key votes – Etheridge, Shuler, Watt, McIntyre – are rumored to be wavering at this time. It's my understanding that Larry Kissell is leaning toward voting no.

I hate to ask you to do this, but it's time to pick up the phone again. Call your representative today. Call Larry right now, too.

Kissell seems to think that most people in his district are against this bill. That's nonsense. Most people in his district don't even know the bill exists. And more to the point, what if they were? What if most people in his district were in favor of racial segregation? Would that mean he'd vote us back to the Jim Crow days?

Larry, we the people are paying you to think for yourself about important strategic issues. In this case, you seem to swallowing the lies of Big Energy as though they're quoting holy scripture. THEY ARE LYING. This legislation does not mean the sky is falling. It will not make the US less competitive. It will not export jobs to China. Don't believe the bullshit.

This legislation is a critical component of a new, forward-looking national energy policy. Please vote for it.

This will come as no surprise to those of you reading this, unless you're three years old and playing around with mommy and/or daddy's computer, in which case you need to a) stop leaning on the keyboard because it's expensive, b) get down from the chair before it rolls back and you bang your head on something, and c) move out smartly because you're about to get caught doing something you know you're not supposed to.

Back to the big people reading this: we are smack in the middle of an Energy Crisis, but most of us don't really understand why. We think we do, because we've been conditioned over the years to respond to rhetoric, but that needs to change.

Once again, Virginia Foxx is in the dark.

In which Exxon/Mobil announces an exciting new energy alternative.

It is past time to get Special Interests out of Energy Policy. Currently, we are reaping the works of the Cheney Energy Policy Taskforce, in which, the energy Policy of the United States was developed by special interests, Big Oil.

After midnight last night, the town board of Woodfin gave the Buncombe County Commission a lesson in public service and denied Progress Energy a permit to build the proposed diesel power plant.
150 angry Woodfin residents sent the message loud and clear apparently, and the 7-0 vote sent another message to the County Seat.