Greed, Ineptitude, Insolence, Pride, and Foolishness

This article in the Sunday 6 July New York Times presents an excellent explanation on how and why the United States and its citizenry has gotten to point of the energy crisis we are now in. The causes are largely due to poor leadership in government and in business and corporations. Short term greed was placed as all important at the expense of vision, conservation, sensibility, and responsibility. The article contains a lot of comments from political and business officials that regret their poor actions and decisions in the last generation. Looking back and reflecting on the past will not change the near term, of course, and it is vital policy is put forth to come up with alternatives that will work for American citizens. There is no hope for lower gasoline prices; so new transportation fuel technologies must emerge and at a cost-efficient price for consumers. There is also no possible way to drill our way out of this crisis. Demand is only going to continue to skyrocket across the planet for oil, gasoline, and petroleum products. Concerning transportation, it is paramount to begin further widescale establishment of mass transit options for workers and travelers. Rail is the easy answer, as much of the rail infrastructure that supported passenger travel in the first half to two-thirds of the 20th century is largely still in place; however construction and expansion will be needed to bring the system to a greater level of efficiency and availability given modern technologies and lifestyles. This will not come quickly enough. It will be 10-15 years before a reasonable national train system will be largely operational. Funding for this new infrastructure will have to come from fuel taxes, corporate profits, and other creative revenue sources such as bonding to be repaid by users of transit. In the meantime, if citizens live in places where alternative transportation is lacking, there will continue to be largely one choice: drive an automobile. Making and distributing more highly fuel efficient vehicles is the first challenge to address, and it can be accomplished relatively quickly -- within 3-5 years. But driving a fuel efficient vehicle will require a change in lifestyles, habits, and attitudes of many. In conclusion, the article states there is no really easy fix to the energy problems facing the citizenry, and when you throw in the paramount issue of global warming into the mix, the challenges are only more enormous. So for now, try to live near a railline, move out of the exurbs and maybe even the suburbs, and plan on making sacrifices in lifestyles, recreation, and entertainment decisions.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/business/06oil.html?ei=5087&em=&en=3ef06b311841c4e8&ex=1215576000&pagewanted=all
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http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_9690226?source=commented-business
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