Tag: Energy Independence

“Our current way of life is unsustainable. We are the first species that will have to self-consciously impose limits on ourselves if we are to survive.” — Robert Jensen

In 2010 we watched, aghast, as British Petroleum’ s Macondo Well in the Gulf of Mexico blew it’s top and leaked umpteen millions of gallons of raw crude oil into the Gulf, poisoning and killing much of the sealife, ruining gulf coast ecosystems, and destroying a way of life for millions of south coast people.

We watched, as business and political leaders and mainstream media went into paroxysms of delusional denial to cover up the sheer unabashed criminality of the event, and tried to create a reality built of smoke and mirrors in which something approaching “normalcy” would once again reign and we could all just jump into our cars and drive off into the sunset as if nothing important or even noteworthy had happened,  while those business and political “leaders” operate in the delusion that military might, invasions and occupations, and wholesale oppression and killing of millions of people in “other” parts of the world – as if there is more than “one” world – all done using a military that paradoxically is the single largest consumer of energy in the world – will somehow secure a never ending supply of the energy required to keep our “advanced civilization” operating forever.

Remind you of a hampster wheel? Faster and faster to nowhere.

There is a battle going on for the hearts and minds of Americans, regarding our Energy Future.

Given the well-funded nature of this Ad Campaign — we probably shouldn’t expect any changes in our “Energy Economics” Future, anytime soon.

The Breaking Point

from AmericanSolutions  188 Videos



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

“Stop the National Energy Tax.”

 — Paid for by American Solutions for Winning the Future.

Who or What is ASWF ???

Sounds harmless, enough …

First Rule of effective Public Relations Branding:

Do No Harm … and sound innocuous.

Wind Farm Makes Money While Rancher Sleeps

Grover, CO – CBS4 — Jan 25, 2008

Rancher George Ehmke said he was eager to be part of the wind project.

“Never dreamed we’d ever have anything like this out here,” Ehmke said. “We have been putting up with this wind all our life. We might as well make something off of it.”

There are 35 massive turbines now perched on his land. The blades spin almost constantly.

[…]

Old time ranchers had one use for the wind — to fill their stock ponds.

“Well we live in a changing world,” Ehmke said. “I’m just glad to see it. We’re using the wind for something besides pumping water.”

[…]

Ehmke said his payout from producing wind power will keep his family’s ranch profitable for the next generation.

“Yeah, I make money in my sleep I guess,” he said.

Nice ‘Work’, eh? … if you can get it.

Crossposted at Daily Kos

THE WEEK IN EDITORIAL CARTOONS

This weekly diary takes a look at the past week’s important news stories from the perspective of our leading editorial cartoonists (including a few foreign ones) with analysis and commentary added in by me.

When evaluating a cartoon, ask yourself these questions:

1. Does a cartoon add to my existing knowledge base and help crystallize my thinking about the issue depicted?

2. Does the cartoonist have any obvious biases that distort reality?

3. Is the cartoonist reflecting prevailing public opinion or trying to shape it?

The answers will help determine the effectiveness of the cartoonist’s message.

:: ::

Clean Up Crew by Cam Cardow, Ottawa Citizen, Buy this cartoon

This was a stunner.  

With all the hoopla about how America desperately needs to become “Energy Independent” — and SO the “urgent need” to Drill off OUR Shorelines — well it turns out, all that Drilling and Spilling, is just for Barrels of Oil, destined for resale on the World Markets!

Turns out — “Our” Gulf Oil is just another “fungible global commodity“!

Huh, what?  Fungy-what?   Does that mean it’s “more fun”?

No.  Fungible simply means something is “interchangeable”.  That One unit of something (like a barrel of Oil) is worth just as much as any other Unit of that same something.  One Ounce of Gold, is exchangeable with any other Ounce of Gold.

Or as Chris Hayes succinctly put it:

There’s NO barrels marked somewhere, “Foreign.”

Say What?  I thought we were risking our precious Ecosystems, to “free ourselves” from the need of Foreign Oil — to increase our “Domestic Reserves”?

If British Petroleum, can pump it and dump it, on the Global Marketplace, where one Barrel of Oil is identical to every other Barrel (assuming no disastrous spills of course) —

Then what the Hell is the Point?

Did you know that ‘Cap and Trade’ is an Old School Solution?

There’s a new Carbon Solution in play, that is CLEARLY a contender …

Cap and Dividend:

The CLEAR Climate Solution

The cap-and-dividend CLEAR Act, introduced by Senators Maria Cantwell and Susan Collins, is simple, fair and built to last. Simple: a 100% auction of permits to pollute, a return of most of the money raised directly to the people, with the remainder used for clean energy investments. Fair: each American gets an equal monthly refund from auction proceeds so that those who use less energy will do better than those using more.

http://chesapeakeclimate.org/c…