The Apples Spill Shows We Need to Reduce Our Dependency on Oranges

In the President's speech last night he took the time to discuss how the oil spill underscores our need to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. Obama then goes on to discuss wind turbines, energy-efficient windows and solar panels. The only area he deals with replacement of the existing fossil fuel solution is in the area of its use to produce electric power. According to Wikipedia, only 1% of electricity in this country is generated by burning petroleum, products made from what is leaking in the Gulf due to the spill. Obama is taking the flimsiest link from the spill and launching into aggressive changes in energy policy; changes that will lead to further taxation and charges to corporations that will only be passed along to the consumer.

I would love to have a vehicle that does not run on petroleum products and I would love to see the entire country shift to an alternate solution for powering cars, trucks, boats, airplanes, etc. What a glorious day it would be to tell OPEC to go pound sand (and they have plenty of sand to pound). How great it would be to deprive revenue to countries that want to see us and our allies destroyed and / or conquered.

Unfortunately, there is nothing in the near or medium term from Obama's policy proposals that will accomplish removing or greatly reducing our dependence on oil. The only remote link is massive job loss resulting in less need and ability for transportation. The topic of electricity generation had no place in the oil spill discussion. It is simply a continuation of this administration's strategy of not letting any crisis go to waste, but be used to reshape this country in their image.