Monday, July 1, 2013

How can we clean up our energy act?

President Obama has finally pledge more climate attention toward a better world to leave in his daughters' care. I care, too, about the state of the atmosphere and environment we create for my granddaughter and for everyone's. I fear, though, that allowing time and reasonable transitions at this point isn't acting quickly enough to protect future generations from dire consequences of climate change.
Wind and solar are only 2 of the emerging clean energy solutions.
It's not like we don't have plenty of clean energy alternatives.
Rather, the US government must take immediate lead to phase out fossil fuels. Supporting "tight" fuel extraction (tar sands and fracked gas) is the antithesis of the direction toward clean energy. Like the space race in the 1960s, the federal government must set the bar higher for developing clean energy choices by stimulating both research and implementation -- and by rejecting the development of new projects (like the Keystone pipeline) that only prolong use of those outdated polluting energies.

Exporting dirty fuels -- coal and tight fuels -- will only exacerbate the problems of pollution because it will just encourage China and developing countries to embrace the wrong technologies for their power. All proposals for these exports only perpetuate the influence of and profiteering by the dying fossil fuel industry. Rather than being part of the solution, these technologies are lethal remnants of the problem. The US must be a role model for both clean energy leadership and climate change management.

Ending tax breaks for fossil fuel profiteering corporations should be a no brainer. If Congress won't stand up for the American Taxpayers, the President must exercise line item vetos for those unconscionable expenditure and reclaim those funds for appropriate taxpayer supporting programs that create both new clean energy technology and jobs for Americans.

I stand for clean energy; I stand for an intelligent future; I stand for better policies and practices today so that now and in the years to come we protect and preserve our planet and its people everywhere. This is a global world, and America needs to reclaim its leadership role not by talking but by showing the way.

There are many clean energy technologies, with wind and solar only the tip of the coming innovation surge. If only we encourage and support the creative minds and pioneering entrepreneurial businesses that are looking to the future and not falling back into the tarpits of the past, our inventive spirit will lead us to a better, cleaner, more energy-efficient way of living.

Let's look for ways to push the cleaning edge further faster rather than plodding along holding up the failing infrastructure of a dying dinosaur petroindustry.

If Congress can't uphold the will of the People, it's up to US, the People, to stand for an energetic change of direction.

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