Solving the Energy Crisis

People are coming up with all kinds of suggestions to bring down the price of gasoline. Tap into the strategic reserve. Open new oil fields for drilling. Reduce the federal and state gasoline taxes. Build new refineries. Convince Saudi Arabia to increase its production.

As usual, people are thinking short-term and not strategically. This is a long-term problem, and short-term solutions won’t do, and will most likely be ineffective at best, and damaging at worst. Desperate times call for desperate measures. We can’t be looking short-term, because what we need is a complete change in the ways we use energy.

As a matter of fact, the current crisis, which is bound to get worse, is giving us an incentive to act fast – and hopefully boldly and decisively – to do what we should have done 30 years ago. Now we will have to suffer for a while, until the energy problem can be fixed. Short term solutions will take the pressure off, and will just delay the inevitable changes that must be made now.

Do your part – every little bit helps. Be willing to make sacrifices. Put pressure on your senators and congressman. If they continue to dither, vote them out! I don’t care what the party – we need someone who can get things done, can compromise, and make the tough decisions. Right now congress is still too much in the hands of the special interests: radical environmentalists, oil companies, the anti-nuclear zealots, the auto industry, etc.