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...why turn on a light when you can open a curtain? Why not legislate stricter building standards for insulation? Subsidize geothermal loops? Why not put a distance, carbon or energy tax on consumer goods?
John McCain likes Lobbyists
by Enterik on Wed May 07, 2008 at 09:30:58 AM PDT
[ Parent ]
Oil by itself goes into so much more of what we need and want than electricity. Everything made out of plastic is ultimately made out of crude oil: Peak Oil will affect their availability and affordability too. The fertilizers and pesticides that grow our food are also ultimately made out of crude oil: same problem there.
Plus, if the oil company parasitoids are just going to weasel their way into the low-carbon sustainable economy, then I want no part of it - I hate these people and don't want to support them.
Legislation, subsidies, and taxes are governmental solutions: they'd work, but they have to overcome the fact that Big Business owns our government. I'm not willing to wait anymore for the political stars to align and I'm tired of fighting people who are either too rich to care about these problems or too stupid to realize that they are problems.
by Visceral on Wed May 07, 2008 at 09:44:47 AM PDT
Tilling monocrops on an industrial scale requires a large amount of oil as well.
Of course my government solution presuppose a successful earlier solution which is the installation of a sensible responsive government. Something we need to always be working for.
Until then, there are sensible choices to be made, sans regulation. One trick is to get good at calculating life cycle costs and imbued energy for products.
You don't have to have better, properly installed insulation legislated in order to break even on cost.
by Enterik on Wed May 07, 2008 at 09:53:04 AM PDT
We can't get an ideological monopoly on the federal and state governments because not everyone thinks exactly like us: radical change requires consensus and commitment that may not be possible for that many people. Maybe some very general principles or the legal nucleus, but not a comprehensive program.
Plus we know as well as anyone that a powerful federal government can be as much a liability as an asset.
This is why I've become so skeptical of major change emanating from Washington or the state capitals: too many people have to agree on too many things to create policies for the rest to just follow, and if the wrong people are in charge and the population is not sufficiently independent of the System, progress stops and may even lose ground.
The specific policies are going to have to come from the local levels, suited to the specific problems and means of the people who're going to have to do the actual lifestyle changes.
by Visceral on Wed May 07, 2008 at 10:02:55 AM PDT
wide narrow
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