These are the conclusions backed up by cites that follow and then, don’t panic, there exists a way out of the forest at the end of this post.
1.The climate is changing and has changed and will continue to change and has been no big deal!
2.Americas strength has laid and still lies in ruthless exploitation of its natural resources and highly skilled workforce and individual adaptability.
3.The environmentalist movement and the laziness of the ‘doom’ generation and hate mongering has hobbled and is hobbling the US from directing our representatives to take appropriate action.
4.The public is at information overload resulting in emotional panicky behavior and disjunct messages being conveyed to our government policy makers.
5.Globalization and issue complexity and murkiness of thought is a direct result of the Internet and information age and one line posts.
6.Big international oil are perceived, due to large dollar profits, to be in control but they are not. The profits are had by reducing shipping costs of final gas product and not the crude. Likewise the OPEC is vertically integrating to retain more of the profits and will withhold crude from markets to feed their refineries.
7.Even in the US the national oil companies control the oil reserves but due to their lack of capitalization and environmental regulation they cannot develop these resources.
8.Much of the national oil companies control was gained by the collapse of ENRON a problem in the making during the 90’s
9.Reducing profits of Big international oil by taxation only reduces capital and does not address the real problems of crude supply, weak dollar, and government excise taxes and national oil companies.
10.Mexico’s precipitous drop in oil production by their national oil company will cause untold hardships south of the border and thank God we have NAFTA to prop up Mexico.
11.Ethanol can’t replace gasoline and only increases food prices and has been the biggest hoodwink of the American consumer by environmentalists to date. I am waiting for the AGW cap and trade shoe to drop and the resulting collapse of the American economy and 45 M households in bankruptcy to be the next one unless people get their collective heads screwed on correctly
12.The United States to supply its entire demand of 21 million barrels per day (3.3×106 m3/d) without resorting to foreign imports, existing US reserves would last only three years.
13.Environmentalists will scream holy terror if any of these reserves are developed!
Oh what to do? When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles scream and shout, NOT. See end of post for the answer.
The US can’t secure a reliable source of oil in the current world environment and can’t win biding wars and there ain’t enough oil to go around anyway!
Oil prices will go up and up and up!
Canada, US, and Mexico have another one-fifth but with the highest production costs and zilch for an aggressive energy sector investment initiative. North America could become the worlds largest net oil exporter with some minor policy changes.
Let’s here it for NAFTA.
Oops, there is the apocalypse. Canada’s cheap crude is our salvation! Taxing profits is not.
The Solution for the environment for gas prices for everything!
We have a near term (2 years) problem – fuel prices and balance of trade.
We have a mid term (20 years) problem – nonrenewable resources
We have a long term (40 years) problem – AGW
The immediate two year problem is easy. I have been there and done that. Play it again Sam!
The US has 320 B barrels of oil equivalent of natural gas reserves which will last 41 years at current demand for automobiles. You can run your bar-b-que from same energy as your vehicle and price per gallon is cheap and by using our own resources we eliminate the trade imbalance and with a natural gas tax we could wipe out the US debt… The pipeline distribution to households already exists, so infrastructure costs are minimal. We would phase out the ethanol boondoggle and return food prices to normal. We are keeping a lid on the Middle East with forces stationed in Saudi, Iraq, and Afghanistan so a middle east apocalypse is not likely.
The 20 year problem is also easy. To ease the transition to renewable resources Canada has 179B barrels of oil reserves in tar sands to last 23 years at current US consumption. These oils require different refining and so thus the Marathon Oil refinery upgrades in Detroit and Ohio now being built and the new Hyperion Resources refining venture in S. Dakota is needed. We would relax some of the environmental hurdles to facilitate investment in these new infrastructures. The savings from the deficit and from the balance of trade leaves trillions of dollars to invest in renewable technologies. We would auction off the interstate medians and margins and have private companies build for profit, metro link extension to serve commuters, the largest consumers of gasoline.
The 40 year problem is also so easy.
I disagree with item #1. Despite urban livings kindness to the Planet I think the urban living has done more harm to the human psyche than a direct and unbroken human interface with the natural world has done to the environment.
I disagree with item #5. US home grown ingenuity will best serve our needs. We have the nuclear, the insulated concrete form, the ground source heat pump, the tankless hot water heater, the hybrid car, the passive and active solar technologies when coupled with a small business entrepreneurial mindset the US has it made in the shade and the rest of the world can come along for the ride.
Better to take Stewart Brand’s advice from the opening page of the original Whole Earth Catalog: “We are as gods and might as well get good at it.” We’re in charge here. Let’s get to work.
Pick apart the solution that was proposed and the conclusions on which I based those solutions.
Why sit around on our asses until the November elections and await salvation from some dumb fuck politicians. Petition those politicians with cogent rational solutions like those proposed. Tell them what we want done not what they in their ivory towers think needs to be done.
Shorter version: The free market will solve all our problems! We should cut taxes and reduce regulation so the free market can solve all our problems faster! Obama is teh suck!
Certainly faster than socialism and Marxism which are the implied alternative, both failed institutions found in the dung heap of history, which is assumed can be resurrected in a new an improved 21st century version to solve all our problems with less than 80 year plans directed from the politburo and dissenters given escort to the red state gulags.
Strawman. Who is asking for a switch to socialism?
The real answer to all the world’s problems is not believing in absolutes. The market can fix a lot, what it can’t fix, the government has to. They need to be used together. And anyone who believes that a market utterly without regulation is the *only *answer just simply isn’t thinking very hard.
Also, could you please re-write the OP so that it is clear?
Sooooo…I’m reading the list of 10 Things To Do To Save The Planet From Global Warming from your Wired.com article, and then I get to #10, "Climate Change Is Inevitable. Get Used to It ".
And I basically go, WTF. If we’re just supposed to get used to global warming, why should we bother, in the first place, to move back to the cities, use GM food, ignore the Prius, etc.?
Who’s proposing socialism or communism? Government regulation does not equal automatic Marxism. :rolleyes:
I’ll remind you that socialism and communism were originally proposed as correctives to unfettered free enterprise, which has likewise been consigned to the dung heap of history.