Tuesday, January 20, 2009

HyperChange, or Change Hype?

Time will tell.


So far, it doesn't seem that President Barack Obama is in Hyperchange mode.

But it will take some time to figure out if all the talk about change is just hype.

As the New York times reported today on Inauguration Day, Obama doesn't have a plan, at least not one for a quick fix, not for the banking "crisis," or a plan for Peak Oil.

Obama has talked plenty about Energy. But it doesn't seem that the Peak Oil concept is part of the literacy.

And, don't forget Obama's foolish campaign trail suggestion to drawdown the Strategic Petroleum Reserve just to save money at the gas pump for summer driving vacations!

Hopefully, once you become President, you get a better briefing on the oil and gas infrastructure of the country and the proper use of the SPR.

I didn't hear any inauguration day call for changing our fatal dependency on oil.

No "New Manhattan Project" for energy.

No nationwide conservation measures.

No plan for gas rationing.

No "what you can do for your country" stuff.

What I am doing for my country is developing AWARENESS of the problem of Peak Oil.


What would I tell Mr. President?

Number 1) The USA is the weakest country in the world because of our dysfunctional dependence on oil. Admit it. Admit the problem and then we can fix it.

Number 2) It is not reasonable for the USA to use 25% of the world's oil every day. The rest of the world hates us. For good reason. Instead, get a plan to change our greedy monopolization of oil and spread the new technology to help everybody else!

Number 3) The US needs a State of Emergency declared! Maybe if the President himself got serious, everybody else would too? The New Manhattan Project should be a program of URGENCY but not one of blind dependence on "blue ribbon" panels made up of the same people who got us into this mess. Would a "Wiki" type model work?

Number 4) We need to immediately re-work the petroleum inventory infrastructure in the US and apply up to date technology to make the inventory data publicly available. This is a jobs generator for sure.

Number 5) The USA needs a crash-implementation of "Alternative Energy" Congress needs to get serious and lose all the stupid corn industry subsidies and create major incentives to kill gas guzzler vehicles and deploy large scale solar and wind and develop algal biofuels. Don't forget about tidal power too.

Number 6) Establish a Federal system for gas rationing to prepare and protect the country. Didn't we learn anything from the 1973 crisis?

Number 7) Drill the ANWR and drill everywhere else, including the continental shelves. The tree huggers and whale savers are totally wrong, drilling is ridiculously safe and should be ramped up to maximum capacity within 6 months.

Number 8) Create a new model for oil and gas price stabilization that creates a "floor" for prices to promote large scale investment in oil and alternative energy production.

We are living through an emergency. It is time to admit it. Bailing out the banks won't work, it already didn't.

"Experimenting" with the economy, like Bob Rubin and Timmy Geithner are thinking about doing is a recipe for disaster.

Oil is everything. Peak Oil is the dragon that threatens everybody and everything.

Time to deal with it.

Fix the oil dependency problem and then we can fix the rest.

Don't fix the oil problem, and we can't do anything.

Not only that, but the rest of the world is depending on us.

My suggestion- develop your awareness of Peak Oil, and tell the President to make the changes he has promised, at whitehouse.gov

Join the revolution, be a real patriot and get the courage to change our oil dependency!

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