Back at the end of April, I decided to get "involved" by sending an email to my Senators and Congresspersons.
The form letter I received back was... disappointing.
First off, my letter:
Hi Senator,
I'm one of your constituents concerned about gas prices and our dependence on oil. Unfortunately I'm not a citizen yet, only a permanent resident, but I'm working on getting the right to vote.
I'm very unhappy at the way the recent gas prices have been "framed" with the blame being put upon Iran, Venezuela, Oil companies and traders.
The reason for our rising gas prices is simply that demand for oil is vastly outstripping supply. Whether or not we are at or beyond the peak of oil production is a moot point. This is because India, China and many other rapidly developing nations are demanding the easy power that oil gives.
We should not be focusing on giving a tax break to folks as $100 is just a week or two's gas usage for most working families. Putting a windfall tax on oil companies is also wrong as I believe it will stifle investment in aging oil production facilities.
We need to wean ourselves away from oil, and it needs an effort equivalent to the US and UK effort in world war 2 to accomplish this goal.
The government needs to completely dedicate itself and the American people over the next 10 years, starting immediately, to removing our dependence on oil completely.
# We should put millions of people to work building clean nuclear power plants, solar panels, wind generators and tidal power generators.
# We should create a government programme to replace all gasoline consuming cars with electric cars and recycle the old vehicles into raw materials. This programme should be as low cost as possible for all ordinary people.
# We should create a high tax credit incentive for ordinary lower wage folks to put solar panels and small wind turbines on their homes.
# We need to heavily invest in 2 or more line electric high speed rail lines to replace our airline-based cross country transportation network.
# We need to solve the problem caused by our lack of light rail investment, either by creating and renovating rail links in towns across the country, or by creating low cost, low emission electric buses.
# We need to stop looking at each problem our country faces in relation to which industry to subsidise or tax.
# We need to work cross party to stop partisan ideology preventing action on these issues.
# We need to make hard and unpopular decisions now to keep our country running in the future. This includes Defense spending that has so far been sacred. We spend hundred of billions on various military projects that we need to start spending on getting ourselves off oil.
# The alaska drilling and canadian oil sands are temporary and expensive measures that will not help America in the long run. These projects as well as the coal gasification project are environmental disasters that will lead to more Katrina level disasters across the US.
I would very much like a response on these points. I would also liketo draw your attention to http://www.theoildrum.com/ - while they are very much focused on peak oil, this technical and imaginative community has some very good ideas on how to stop our national dependence on oil.
Thank you for your time, Anthony Clark.
And now for Senator Levin's response:
Dear Mr. Clark:
Thank you for contacting me regarding drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I appreciate hearing your views.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, located in the northeast corner of Alaska, is one of the last remaining pristine wilderness areas in the United States. It also holds the potential for oil and gas development. The 1980 Alaskan Lands Act reserved 104 million acres of this area as a national park, refuge or wilderness. As a result, oil and gas development is currently prohibited in most portions of the refuge.
I believe opening the refuge to drilling is the wrong approach to addressing our energy problems. The actual reserves in the area are too small either to ensure the United States' energy independence or have a significant impact on energy prices. It is estimated that the refuge could produce only around 4% of our daily supply of oil. Consequently, most analysts agree that opening the refuge would have little effect on energy prices, particularly the cost of gasoline. Another critical factor is the devastating effect drilling could have on this fragile ecosystem.
A provision was recently added to the Senate version of the FY2007 Budget Resolution (S.Con.Res.83) which would direct the Senate Energy Committee to produce legislation to raise $3 billion in new federal revenue, essentially directing the committee to open the coastal plain of the refuge to drilling. As on previous occasions, I opposed opening the refuge to drilling, however, this provision was included in the Senate version of the resolution. The House has yet to consider its version of the FY2007 Budget Resolution, and it is my hope that this provision will not be included in the final legislation.
This continuous fight over drilling in ANWR is a distraction from real energy solutions that would decrease our dependence on foreign oil while still protecting the environment. Endangering this natural treasure for the sake of a limited supply of oil is the wrong approach to addressing our energy problems. Thank you again for writing.
Sincerely,
Carl Levin
I did mention ANWR, but I hope it's obvious that it wasn't the main subject of my email. I don't think I'm that bad a writer!!
This response really depressed me. I'm already practically powerless, in limbo due to my permanent residency and unable to vote. Heck, I bet there's some immigration law stating that I can't get involved in politics.
A form letter response. It made me feel like one of those bad customer service email systems was answering me; the logic going something like "$customer mentioned $subject in email, respond with $cannedResponse"
A friend, referring to Jennifer Granholm's difficult reelection battle against the very rich DeVoss, said that letters weren't enough. He said that we need to dedicate time and most of all money to Jenny G.
Back to my situation: Why should I support someone who doesn't read their mail?