Energy

Here it is almost midmonth and I've not been on my soapbox once. Let's change that.
Most of us (Americans) are paying gas prices that have risen astronomically. We hear all kinds of reasons, mostly the cost of crude and the increasing demand of emerging economies like China and India. There may be some truth to that but are you reading the financial pages at all? Oil companies' profits are also way up. Let's not continue to kid ourselves, VP Dick and all his buddies have us all bent over the proverbial barrel.
Ouch! May I have another sir!?
All the big energy companies are running rampant with the FEC turning a blind eye, and it's not going to change anytime soon, not with this administration.

So what to do. I was watching the news yesterday morning and KTLA was running a story about used Toyota Priuses selling for more than new ones. I'm sure the car companies will ramp up hybrid production but lets face it - that takes time, and not everyone is going to be able to run out and buy a new $30K plus car tomorrow even if the supply increases. Hydrogen is way off the list still and besides it's not a new energy source but only a redistribution, sort of a battery, it takes energy to make hydrogen.

The only way to get cheaper, more reliable energy right now is probably nuclear. The real problem is it needs to be done differently then in the past. The obstacle to that is irrational fear by people unable to understand or pay attention to the real science, instead of Hollywood fueled mega-scares, and the status quo of the existing players.

Here is an acticle on BoingBoing which itself has many links.
Lot's of reading and lot's of interesting points made. Read the Wired article on China and pebblebed reactors. Why the hell are we letting the Chinese get ahead of us on this? This is where the USA should be going now - not later. We continue to forefit our technological edge to them. We could do it and be safer and more responsible then they will ever be.
The Rolling Stone article The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler is also interesting but I do think he's a little too alarmist and negative about the ability of us to adapt when times get bad enough.

I'm hoping the good thing that comes out of this wil be a real change in our policies. I don't think this can be allowed to continue unabated. The damage this does to the whole economy can't be hidden behind the war on terror forever.