Many of you may have heard about Al Gore's non-partisan challenge to repower America in the next 10 years. I am so excited to see all the support his challenge has been getting. I heard part of his speech from a conference that was held in DC this month, and truly feel America is finally prepared to take action on our energy crisis. It is possible to solve most of our problems if both political parties will take action and attack the two central issues that keep causing us grief...global warming and an overwhelming dependence on oil.
Anyone heard of T. Boone Pickens? I just saw a commercial the other night referring to his plan to switch American energy to domestic, renewable energy. He is apparently an oil man who is investing in wind energy farms. Will he profit if we switch 22% of our energy to wind power? Absolutely, but that's fine with me, as long as we start looking for viable solutions to our dependence on foreign oil. I am a huge supporter of wind, solar, and wave energy. They are all renewable with very little impact on the environment. Oil is not a renewable resource. No matter how long we stall, the supply is going to eventually run out, and in the meantime we are not being responsible to the environment. The misconception that is being propagated right now that drilling for more oil will help us get out of our steep gas prices is not the full truth. It will take years for any new drilling to impact the economy(more than one presidential or senatorial term), and by the time we get ourselves set up, China will be a huge player in petroleum imports. It simply won't work in our favor. I think this T. Boone Pickens' plan sounds reasonable, for a change. He is stepping up to Gore's challenge, and I hope many will follow. Check out his website in my links at the bottom right of my blog. And please feel free to share your opinion to this blog post. I am still learning, and love to hear other perspectives.
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2 comments:
I agree, we need to get on the alternative bandwagon, and I love the Pickens plan, but I think it is still important to develop domestic sources of oil. It is going to take a long time to get off of oil, and we need the domestic oil to wean ourselves off of foreign oil.
There is a ton of misinformation on both sides of this issue. I think we can safely extract oil from ANWR, offshore rigs, and shale oil in the green river basin in an environmentally conscious way. I am sick of people opposing drilling in ANWR when they have never even seen the place. I've been to Alaska, seen the pipeline, and guess what? The Animals LIKE it. It's not in their way at all.
We are the only country in the world that refuses to develop our own sources of oil. We need to switch to alternatives, but even converting over to Natural Gas like Pickens is advocating will take a very long time. Lets responsibly develop all the resources we have and achieve energy independence ASAP.
I am glad that there are people out there who are willing to spend time and money on such an important cause. I worry about our future and especially where this country is headed. We went on a family vacation this week, and between Twin Falls and Boise we saw 3 wind energy farms, they are fascinating to see!
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