This is a serious proposal on the subject of developing alternatives to using oil for energy. The one comment resulting from my (very) first diary accused me of floating a snark, which this is not.
I have supported the Democrat in every election in which I could vote since my first in 1976. That includes Jimmy Carter, who I would vote for again.
The Carter approach to shifting America and the world from using oil was good hearted but wrong. Obama is on the same wrong track. He does not have to be.
My proposed policy is not to pick winners and subsidize them briefly. Or to punish oil producers with taxes, no matter how much you think they deserve it.
The solution is to provide steady support for alternatives and to ride out oil price fluctuations. Not by government sponsorship of alternatives, but by government stabilization of the oil market.
In 1973 the price of oil increased dramatically. And again in 1979.
See the graph of oil prices here. In between these dates, I entered and graduated from a little vocational school down the river from Harvard.
It was an exciting time. Lot's of projects were started to find alternatives to using oil. Many, many things. Some economic, some not. Some which (at least their promoters claimed) would become economic at a large enough scale. Some great ideas. It was a hopeful time.
The late 70's were a period of intense inflation. High oil prices stimulated production. The value of the dollar fell, and more supply entered the market. Within a decade, the dollar price of oil fell, not back to 1972 levels, but to a much more tolerable level. Carter got the blame. Reagan got the credit. It was nonsense.
For a synopsis of programs started under Carter only to be killed by Reagan, read the article by his guy - who's views I am NOT endorsing - where he provides a summary of the state of Carter era efforts and the Republican talking points of the early 80's.
Here is what I take from this:
Using taxes to subsidize energy alternatives with government programs revs up the oil industry to fund anyone who will oppose the taxes or the subsidies. Anyone. You end up with the worst Republican chowderheads in office.
It also induces Democrats to fall over themselves promoting subsidies of projects in their districts. They do not examine the economics or technical merit. Cynical use of government money to get (re)elected is a bipartisan disease. Good ideas get buried in the noise.
My proposal seeks to help out the good ideas, without even knowing what they are. Without Congress picking technologies. And with the oil companies working for us instead of against us.
I will not repost the proposal, because it is already here.