Hello blog fans. It has been a while. Some of you might be confused because my last post I put my heart and soul behind Hillary Clinton, or was it Elizabeth Warren. Either or, it don't matter, it was just an April Fools Joke. I think, I hope, most of you knew that. So, if you were scared I lost my mind, I didn't. And if you were excited I joined their struggle, I didn't.
Moving on. I am going to post this article (way at the bottom) kind of as a warm up. I can't go right into hard core posting or I might pull something. So, this is a nice easy jog around the track.
This subject, energy, is a tricky one with me. On one side, I tend to be with the use what we have, and lets not price or clean energy regulate ourselves into high cost fuel. I say that because our main competitors and threats in this world, China and Russia are not and will not. And PS, the middle east hates us. And others who are not necessary threats, like India and others, also are not and will not. So, if we ban coal, or make it almost impossible to use coal, we hurt ourselves. If we make energy so expensive, we hurt the poor and ourselves.
Now pollution is another story. One I don't want to dive into in this post, but maybe another time.
Then there is this other side of me, one who personally is a hyper conserver. I drive a one cylinder 400cc scooter that gets over 55 miles per gallon. My other vehicle is a Honda Fit that averages over 30 miles to the gallon. We are at the bottom 10% of energy users in our neighborhood. We cook in our toaster oven often. I even have flash light night with my daughter where we don't turn on the lights after the sun goes down. I also have designed a very energy efficient/independent home. My carbon foot print is for sure smaller than the average Americans.
So, it seems my actions do not match my thinking. Maybe I am a closet tree hugger, but more likely I am just an out of the closet cheapskate. Those of you who know me, know I do not share the optimism of the future. At least not an optimism pertaining to the energy future for America or the world. One where gas is cheap and abundant. It will not be. Other countries are hungry for it. Between oil and water, there will be grotesque amounts of blood shed and money spent to control both of those in the future. The less we need, the better we will live. Or maybe we will just live. Those are my thoughts, if you don't share them fine. I am fine with that. I am fine with people driving trucks and cars that get shitty gas mileage. I am fine with people keeping their AC cold as hell and having dozens of electronics on in their house. That is a choice, and those who want that can pay for that. Same goes with electricity and heat.
It's when you make energy more expensive than it needs to be you really hurt the poor and you really hurt industry. So what is the solution, what is the right answer? I don't know. I only know what I do, and I am not qualified or interested in making that decisions for others. As I am on most subjects. Now, if you want my money (taxes) to pay for other peoples choices, then yeah, you should listen to me. You should conserve. You should retrofit your house with a wood cook stove, and turn off the TV. But otherwise, I really don't care. But if all your eggs are in one basket, and that basket gets real expensive to fill, that is your problem.
So, here is something to read on the topic. I could find dozens of links, but I will only post a few.
As always, enjoy or don't.
And try flash light night.
And I did go a little longer than I wanted to, but I'm ok.
Here is a lefty type environmental site I frequent. It occasionally has good stuff. Grist
Here is a article on a paper. Morality-Cheap-Energy
Here is the paper. The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels
Oh, and I just read these. The Long Emergency (Amazon) (wiki) and Too Much Magic (Amazon)
