Remember (well, not firsthand), that pledge JFK made in 1960 about sending a man to the moon by the end of the decade?
I wish GW would do a similar thing, and make it the #1 national priority to make crude oil to the 21st century what whale oil was to the 20th. Irrelevant. I wish he would come out and say "By 2020 (whatever) we will develop something to use for energy instead of oil", and put something in place to make it happen. OK, I'll leave it up to his speechwriters to make it sound a little more inspiring.
I'm serious, though. As long as oil, domestic or foreign, is the industrialized world's primary source of energy, we will be slaves to guys like Osama bin Laden. What if we woke up one day to find out he had overthown the Saudi government? It could happen. Does anyone understand how hosed we'd be? It would make Tuesday seem like stubbing your toe. Even if we develop our own energy independence, as long as the oil boys have the $$$ rolling in our problems with them will not go away. Our best weapon in the long run is to develop something else we and the rest of the world can use as a primary energy source, destroy the international market for crude oil and return guys like OBL and Saddam to doing whatever guys like them did in 1900.
That's the best revenge we could ever have.
This could take 20 or 30 years, but we could do it. We have the brains, all we need is the will to start it and stay with it. What we need is a sustained long term program, not one that goes away every time the price of oil falls to $10 a barrel. Maybe it's a nutty idea, but it's no nuttier than the idea of putting a man on the moon was in 1960.
If you need an incentive picture those poor doomed people standing in the burned out upper floors of the WTC. That picture will be with me for the rest of my life.
I wish GW would do a similar thing, and make it the #1 national priority to make crude oil to the 21st century what whale oil was to the 20th. Irrelevant. I wish he would come out and say "By 2020 (whatever) we will develop something to use for energy instead of oil", and put something in place to make it happen. OK, I'll leave it up to his speechwriters to make it sound a little more inspiring.
I'm serious, though. As long as oil, domestic or foreign, is the industrialized world's primary source of energy, we will be slaves to guys like Osama bin Laden. What if we woke up one day to find out he had overthown the Saudi government? It could happen. Does anyone understand how hosed we'd be? It would make Tuesday seem like stubbing your toe. Even if we develop our own energy independence, as long as the oil boys have the $$$ rolling in our problems with them will not go away. Our best weapon in the long run is to develop something else we and the rest of the world can use as a primary energy source, destroy the international market for crude oil and return guys like OBL and Saddam to doing whatever guys like them did in 1900.
That's the best revenge we could ever have.
This could take 20 or 30 years, but we could do it. We have the brains, all we need is the will to start it and stay with it. What we need is a sustained long term program, not one that goes away every time the price of oil falls to $10 a barrel. Maybe it's a nutty idea, but it's no nuttier than the idea of putting a man on the moon was in 1960.
If you need an incentive picture those poor doomed people standing in the burned out upper floors of the WTC. That picture will be with me for the rest of my life.
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