Between Friends

I stole this headline from the online article I just read. If you're familiar with this story, what's your take on it? Is it doable? -- and given our current situation, is it feasble at all, much less within 10 years?

If you have not heard nor read this story yet -- here is the executive summary: Al Gore has issued a challenge to both presidential candidates to "produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun and other Earth-friendly energy sources within 10 years"

As for my own thoughts:

[1] I commend Al Gore -- and no, to you right-wingers out there, I am not a Gore supporter nor a liberal nor a "drinker of the Kool-Aid" -- I am a fiscal conservative frankly, but I think and vote independently. For the record, just because a person is a member of the "other political party" doesn't rule out any smart suggestions and ideas they may make. Nor does it justify turning a deaf ear on said ideas -- but for those who do, well, it says a lot about their own biases and dare I say it, ignorance.

[2] Gore has the passion and ambition and clout to help turn that suggestion into an action plan -- and so I support that initiative. And frankly, I respect the fact he's making a public press conference out of it rather than doing what so many people do, whisper their ideas and hide behind the curtain, unwilling to take a public stand.  

[3] I'm all for this proposal but there's trillions of dollars in the status quo system -- oil production and utilization, etc. It's off the subject a tad, but even our processing plants -- converting corn into ethanol -- are operated by machinery that runs on fossil fuels! So, here we are investing billions of dollars in the use of corn to produce fuel -- yet the plants making that ethanol [which incidentally is supposed to be for the purpose of eliminating our reliance on oil] are using machines that use oil -- and so it seems to be yet another government subsidized scam [probably a result of earmarks].  Furthermore, in the process, the cost of corn is driven way up there -- making everything that uses corn more expensive; and corn is used in everything, which, um, makes everything we buy more costly. is it possible to use "wind, sun and other Earth-friendly energy sources" to operate these ethanol plants? I have no idea. 

[4] The best part of Gore's very bold challenge -- in my opinion -- is the fact that he makes the same assertion to both McCain and Obama. Making it clear he's not siding with one or the other based on a specific party affiliation. He's indirectly asserting that whichever candidate represents the best choice for getting us to that goal, marks the best choice for the American voter. After all, the 1st 4 years of a 10-year plan are the most important years; and chances are the candidate will be office for 8 years. 

[5] There's so much talk about this and that being "bi-partisan" that I hate hearing the word. But in this case, Gore is 100% bi-partisan. I think that carries alot of weight.

[6] But I tend to be a realist -- not a dreamer -- and so I am skeptical -- is this truly an achievable outcome? It seems unlikely. Sure, when JFK made the bold challenge about "making it to the moon"  that probably triggered a similar amount of skepticism among the public. But what's different about this [challenge from Gore], is that this country is already hooked and drunk on fossil fuels. In the 1960s the whole rocket science industry was non-existent! -- and so the point is, it was easier to achieve that bold goal to reach the moon because, from day 1, nothing else existed in that realm; and so they avoided having to re-build, re-engineer, re-wire, re-configurate and re-work everything. They got to start from scratch and could focus 100% of their energies and money on designing and building things according to the way they needed them to be.

That is not the case with U.S. energy goals! 

Hell, we are as hooked on fossil fuel energy production as a crack addict is hooked on crack. And to move in the direction called for -- be to protect what's left of the environment in these capacities, or for national defense and terrorism risk prevention or mitigation --requires a comprehensive re-engineering of all systems and plants and products. And to engineer -- and implement -- a whole new way of doing things takes everyone being on the same page -- and it takes exponential cooperation from everyone. I just don't see that happening. There is too much money and ego and need for control, for that to be realistic. But that's just my take on it.