Time to take Action for Renewable Electric Energy Generation

I’ve seen it before. Last week I saw it again. It was a bumper sticker that said, "If you’re not really pissed off, you are just not paying attention".

June 21st must have been the longest day for the US Senate. On solstice day they passed a version of the new national energy policy that will no doubt anger anyone that is paying attention, except those that believe that the American Auto industry is on the right track.
The highlights of this legislation regarding electric energy and electricity generation are, that two key provisions failed to get into the final version. The $32.1 billion alternative energy tax package got the boot and so did nation wide renewable energy portfolio standards.

Mired down in the gasoline controversy of CAFÉ standards and oil industry subsidies, the Senate had no strength to include these progressive and important issues in the final piece of legislation. The only glimmer of hope for reducing the nation’s non-renewable electric energy appetite were the changes proposed in lighting and appliance standards.

The oil and coal industries killed the Alternative Energy tax subsidies because an increase in Alternative Energy subsides was to be funded by reductions in fossil fuel industry subsidies. The electric industry killed the renewable energy portfolio standards for various reasons. Some argued that they did it to avoid a change in their cozy relationship with the fossil fuel industry - coal mining and natural gas development. Others argued that belectric utilities killed it simply because they didn’t want to change they way that they have done things since the 1930's.
Of course they say the electric utility industry killed it because the system is working the way it is and there is no need to change. Utility executives go on to argue that there is no need to change a system that continues to bring relatively cheap and reliable energy to a growing demand for electricity. They claim, I think rightfully so, that consumers do not want to see drastic increases in their electric bills. Yet the rates can’t help but continue to climb as scarcity principles dictate.

Which argument is correct? Frankly, I am so sick of the way business is conducted in this country that I can’t really think objectively about it and there is the real problem. Analysis paralysis has gripped all of us. We can no longer, if we ever could really , trust the accuracy of the information that we get to make our informed opinions...well ...informed. Absent this assurance that we are getting the facts that matter, it is no wonder that most of the population continues to keep living the way they always have; driving more road miles every year regardless of price and environmental damage; using increasing amounts of electricity regardless of price and environmental damage.

So what will this new legislation do to help us be smarter and make better use of the energy that we all agree is disappearing and getting more expensive? Wading through 464 pages of legislation to find out is hard work.

Those of us that can’t stand to read through all of that, should simply contact their elected representatives and tell them you want them to vote to take away the oil and coal industry subsidies that have been in place for decades and give those subsidies to the new guys and the little guys- the solar, wind, and energy conservation industries. It’s the fair thing to do. Don’t give it to the bio-fuels industry. Creating Bio fuels takes more regular fuel to make than the bio-fuel it produces. There is no objective study that says otherwise. Why would we want to support legislation that makes us run out of gasoline faster? I know, Ed Abbey claimed he drove a Cadillac just to hasten the end of the fossil fuel era. So now Governors and the rest think we could be saving the world by driving more metal. Are you paying attention?

If you want more renewable energy used to generate your electricity, if you want the future to harness, clean and renewable technologies instead of replacing one destructive fuel with a different destructive fuel, we must all take action.

Come on, make that call.