Clinton v Obama on the Energy Crisis
I’ve always felt that Obama understood the urgency better than Clinton. That bill was one of the most ingenious bills that I have seen come forward in a long time, combining a number of policy issues while helping a fading industry at the same time. Unfortunately it never became law. But that kind of thinking is critical for us to be able to maintain our standard of living moving forward. Comparing their stated policies Obama does a little better than Clinton, unfortunately both of them fall short in the over all picture. Her over all plan just seems to be lacking the vision of Obama’s.
Of course having said that, Obama hasn’t had a lot of luck implementing his plan. They both rely too heavily on bio-fuels, but I still prefer the one who talks about the longer term issues on a more regular basis. Too bad Richardson isn’t viable.
Oh and if you haven’t seen it yet, the crude awakening is an excellent primer on what exactly the problem we are facing is.
January 30th, 2008 at 20:23
Thanks for depressing me. Welcome to the Bleak Future.
Move to New Mexico.
February 2nd, 2008 at 17:11
Sometimes I feel like an old testament prophet of doom.
On the other hand, I really do believe that with proper preparation we can make the transition from an oil based economy to a electric economy without too drastic a reduction in our standard of living. But I do think that it will need to be planned, and doing things like dropping out of ITER. Fortunately Bush eventually saw the light and the US rejoined, but if we really are going to change from an oil based economy, we have a LOT of work to do. The largest problem is replacing the energy that is produced in this country by oil. Generally going electric will work, though there will need to be a massive reconfiguration that needs to happen in terms of distribution (think trains instead of cars for long distance trips) and production. Fusion is out there a bit, but Fission can help us out in the mean time (woot illinois, 90% fission!). Shipping can shift to fission, the Navy in particular has a lot of know how for nuclear propulsion. And client sited green production along with advances in efficiency can reduce the overall strain on the network, but the scale of the needed changes is truly frightening. Every time I go to indiana and see that the entire city is constructed on the notion of cheap and abundant fuel, it just amazes me.
I do wish there were more I could do in the mean time though. Pay off my debts (make myself depression proof) and buy some land in the country (near enough to hike to if needed) seems like a good backup plan though.
For now though I will just encourage the free market to solve my problems by buying more efficient, longer lasting products, and voting for people who have a longer vision.