-Caveat Lector- From http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemId=12380
}}}>Begin The opiate of the mass producers Jesse Jackson - Tribune Media Services 11.21.01 - In a time of war and terror, America has serious unfinished business. At the top of the list is an emergency drive for energy independence. We must end our dependence on foreign oil, and develop a safe energy system that is immune from terrorist disruption. This is no longer an environmental luxury; it is a matter of life or death for the young men and women fighting in Afghanistan, and a matter of economic security for our families here at home. What's needed is the energy equivalent of the Manhattan Project, the project that developed the atomic bomb in World War II. At the very least, we should take the $8.3 billion scheduled to be wasted next year on Star Wars (on top of $100 billion already spent) and invest it in an energy independence project. Energy independence isn't beyond our reach. Conservation alone could easily replace the oil we now get from the Persian Gulf. For example, the Honda Insight is a hybrid electric-gas engine that gets 70 miles per gallon of gas. If we all drove similar cars, we'd save more oil than OPEC produces each year. The Toyota version gets 50 miles per gallon. If we drove that, we'd not have to import any foreign oil. Renewable energy prices -- particularly solar and wind -- have plummeted, and those are the fastest growing sources of energy right now. Conservation -- more efficient production, storage and use of energy -- could dramatically lower fuel bills, increase savings that could be invested elsewhere and help eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. The big change already started is toward “micropower” -- smaller, more widely distributed power plants that are far cheaper to build and more efficient to run. Just over the horizon, notes Phil Watts, the head of Royal Dutch Shell is the ``end of the hydrocarbon age,'' and the move to a ”hydrogen economy,” in which easily available hydrogen gas is combined with fuel cells and other small power plants to make virtually every home energy self-sufficient. Decentralization is vital for another reason: defense. A terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant is everyone's nightmare. And experts admit our nuclear power plants are not designed to withstand the kind of attack that destroyed the World Trade Center. A terrorist could take out three-fourths of the natural gas going to the East Coast without leaving Louisiana. Last month, a drunk reeled out of a bar in Alaska and shot the oil pipeline -- shutting it down for a day and dumping 300,000 barrels of oil on the tundra. A serious terrorist assault would be devastating. Smaller, decentralized power plants offer less of a target, and less disruption if they come under attack. Renewable energy isn't just good for the environment. It is vital to the defense of our economic system, and to energy independence. The smarter conservatives understand the importance of energy independence. Charles Krauthammer even argues that dependence on foreign oil is why we're fighting in Afghanistan. He says that's why we have to drill in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve and pass the president's “big oil” energy bill. But that makes no sense. Domestic oil -- even including ANWR -- can't replace our need for foreign oil. ANWR itself would offer only about 152 days of supply for the nation. The only way to break our addiction to foreign oil is alternative energy and conservation. An energy independence plan would also break up the energy monopolies, eliminating the gouging and price instability that almost bankrupted California this year. Of course, big-oil politicians who get most of their money from the oil and gas interests will resist the change. But surely Sept. 11 has taught us that we can't allow special interests to get in the way of a serious national drive for energy independence. As Phil Watts of Royal Dutch Shell revealed, the smarter oil executives understand that this change is coming, and are scrambling to get ahead of it. Watts announced that Shell would invest up to a $1 billion over five years in new solar and wind energy businesses, while gearing up for the move toward a hydrogen economy. The U.S. shouldn't wait for the oil prices to soar and the disruptions to grow so great that our economy is crippled. We should launch our own Energy Independence Project now, invest in new technologies, transform government buildings and purchasing to create markets for fuel-efficient cars, lighting, heating, micropower generators, etc. We will not only help make America safe from terror and independent of foreign oil, we will develop the technologies that capture what must be the growth markets of the future. We can afford to do this easily. Take the money from missile defense, or simply cancel the shameless tax cuts now being offered to big corporations and upper-income taxpayers in the name of “stimulus.” Americans - - rich or poor -- are ready to sacrifice to make this country safer. Energy independence is one fundamental place to start. 2001 Tribune Media Services, Inc. URL: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemId=12380 End<{{{ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men. Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all. Then accept it and live up to it." The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller, German Writer (1759-1805) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Universal Declaration of Human Rights + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." --- Ernest Hemingway <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
