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| Tuesday, February 15, 2005 |
| The Perfect Storm Geo-Political Strategy |
The fact that the Bush Administration hasn't articulated a progressive renewable energy / energy conservation strategy, while at the same time cozying up to friends in the oil industry is, to me, deplorable. The presidency is the ultimate bully pulpit, and reducing our dependence on oil energy is sort of the perfect storm of a strategy that the president should be pushing down to corporations and individuals - it would reduce the wealth of terrorist funders like the Saudi royals and Iranian mullahs, it would compel modernization and democratization in many middle east countries by reducing the population's dependency on the oil-rich aristocracy, and it would preserve and protect the environment and slow global climate change.
I'm confident that the next Democrat president, especially if it's Al Gore, will make this a top-tier priority in their administration. But Bush simply continues with status quo, in fact worse by waging wars and deficit spending, which even further increases the price of oil.
Tom Friedman on Sunday pointed out the problem: By adamantly refusing to do anything to improve energy conservation in America, or to phase in a $1-a-gallon gasoline tax on American drivers, or to demand increased mileage from Detroit's automakers, or to develop a crash program for renewable sources of energy, the Bush team is - as others have noted - financing both sides of the war on terrorism. We are financing the U.S. armed forces with our tax dollars, and, through our profligate use of energy, we are generating huge windfall profits for Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan, where the cash is used to insulate the regimes from any pressure to open up their economies, liberate their women or modernize their schools, and where it ends up instead financing madrassas, mosques and militants fundamentally opposed to the progressive, pluralistic agenda America is trying to promote. Now how smart is that?
My previous post on TF's "Geo-Green" movement |
posted by CB @ 9:12 AM   |
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