Write your elected officials and demand a national energy policy NOW! Make sure you tell them that we will not be dazzled by hollow promises. We expect a coherent plan that makes maximum use of existing resources (shale oil, drilling the gulf before the chinese do it), tell them that just like garbage dumps and prisons, oil refineries have to go somewhere, so make exemptions that the tree huggers cannot block. Provide a level playing field for the makers of biodiesel, tax advantages should be equal for all new technologies. Ask them why we have a long term highway plan, but no long term energy plan? Industry will not invest in developing solutions if their investments will be stripped away due to willy nilly whims of congress or the next administration. The last time this happened was during Jimmy Carter's administration. The shale oil industry got beat up by the environmentalists and cheap foriegn oil prices, I doubt anyone would invest in this again without assurances. Same goes for any new technology. We need a long term national energy policy, we cannot afford to go from one 4 year administration to the next, the Japanese had an 40 year economic plan after WWII that they followed to a "T" and picked off one industry after another until they kicked our ass. How many TVs do we make here now, look at electronics, my point exactly. We need a national strategy (war plan) for energy, that will kick foriegn oil's ass, and make us independent. We need to start now, we do not have the luxury to wait for "Pie In the Sky" stuff like hydrogen and fuel cells.
