. OBAMA ELIMINATES OIL SUBSIDIES
YOUTUBE: BILL MOYERS JOURNAL "BILL MOYERS JOURNAL | Bill Moyers on Big Oil | PBS" (Let's not forget the endless Oil Wars. Let's end that, too.)
GREEN, ALTERNATIVE, RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY WILL BENEFIT
Better Dump That Gas-Guzzling Truck, Get A Hybrid While You Can
We were as distraught with record high gas prices as the next guy, who shot himself on the gas line. But we were almost as upset when gas prices went precipitously down again, and everybody forgot about conserving, clean energy, going green. It could have been a pivotal moment in our nation's history. Instead, just as in the aftermath of every previous oil shock since the 1970's, nothing happened. We got our asses kicked by skyrocketing oil & gasoline prices, long lines at the pump, odd-even license plate number rationing, and the near collapse of the U.S. auto industry, not to mention the rest of the economy. But as soon as the threat had subsided, we went back to happily guzzling gas, happy as pigs in their own sh*t.
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Well, here we are again. Only this time, we're all in it really deep. We have no choice but to change our behavior, for our own good. But we won't. Even with the Bush Recession, mini-cars and hybrids are being passed up for big engines and bigger bodies, just like the bad old days. People are still cruising around aimlessly in their giant SUVs & pick-up trucks, wasting gas for fun & Big Awl profit.
In all fairness, most of us have no choice. Decades of foolish pro-car pro-gas planning and development has left us without public transit or access to alternative energy for private transit. Your taxes, investments and consumer spending have all been channelled into supporting a chaotic system that is now choking us all, economically, environmentally and socially. How much time do you waste every day all tied up in traffic, or running dozens if not hundreds of miles from home to school to work to shopping to school to home and back again the next day, unable to walk anywhere and unwilling to hassle with your meager local mass transit sustem? Our civilization is now built around the car, and it will take a major committment to change that.
That's what Obama is doing right now, today, with this announcement. Take heed. As he promised in the campaign, renewable and alternative energy is a priority. Curing the car cancer is the solution to many of our problems. But only by prolonged and concerted government intervention, or the kind of private market manipulation seen in every oil crisis since 1970, sustained this time, will people themselves change. So get ready for some strong medicine, and some howling from the oil companies & Wall Street's personal representatives in government & the media: The Republicans and their tame corporate talking heads. Don't listen. Tune them out. Turn them off. Do the right thing. And this time, stick with it.
(Links here.) .
