Lex Luz

America's Energy Policy: Coming to Terms with Reality

Just as with the mortgage mess, there is more than enough responsibility for our energy problems to go around. People who screech that the "whacko environmentalists" or the "democratic left" or the "greedy oil companies" are the sole cause of our current ills are all equally moronic. WE ARE ALL TO BLAME, ALL OF US.

We can fix this problem if we confront it honestly. It's my opinion that we need to drill everywhere now, AND that we need to increase refining capacity as well as investing heavily in nuclear, wind, geothermal, solar, biomass, and other alternatives for electric generation.

More important than drilling everywhere, though, is recognizing that drilling for more oil doesn't solve anything - it merely pushes out the horizon of the end. Unless you are among those few who do not believe that oil is a finite resource, you must recognize that we will eventually use all of it (within economic limits; yes, I'm aware of those arguments). We must, must, MUST develop alternative fuels for transportation AND alternative infrastructures. These changes are going to demand culture change as well. That's not a left/right, positional argument, it's just what is.

The longer we scream and screech about partisan nonsense, the longer we remain paralyzed and the closer we get to total self-destruction. It's time to recognize that we have all contributed to the madness and that we can all work together to overcome it.