In 1979 we were in an energy crisis. Gas rationing was occurring. Magazines were telling us that all oil and gas in the world was running out and we better find alternative energy.
People were setting up wind farms. Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House.
We were going to make cars that got 60 miles to the gallon and we were going to drive 55 mph and we were going to have bullet trains and.......................
it all fell apart. There was an oil glut and Sammy Hagar and no one else wanted to drive 55 and we elected Ronald Reagan because Carter just made us all feel so damned poor and depressed in that silly sweater. It is 10 degrees outside, can't I turn the heat up to 68? Etc., etc.
So we abandoned everything that we were told we should do in 1979. Wind power outside of California became a bad joke where people invested just to get the tax breaks (the operations being so bad that the wealthy knew they would lose money). We drove small cars for a while, until maybe 1984. But we decided that "greed is good" and went back along our merry way.
Now we are 30 years down the road. We hear today that John Kerry wants more high-speed rail. And we hear that we are going to make Detroit build greener cars. And we hear that everyone wants wind and solar powered everything.
But gas was $1.58 in my Minneapolis suburbs today. And people, ya know, really do like to drive, and trains cost money, and I can drive 300 miles for like 20 bucks.....
President Obama has to move very quickly and decisively to change the way we look at the world. He has to force a quick and irreversible change. If we need 50 mpg fuel efficiency standards or we need high speed rail or we need a $500B jobs program, he has to use his political capital and jam it through as soon as he comes into office. Otherwise, we all get too accumstomed to how things have always been.
I heard my dad tell me, "Things are gonna change for you kids" when I was 15. And I am hearing him say, "Things are gonna really change for the grandkids" now that I am 44. I really don't want to tell my kids when I am 73, "You know, I think you guys may get fuel efficient cars and high speed rail soon. Maybe."