Todd Luger :: Blog :: Energy Policy during the Economic Slump

This article on energy policy from yesterday's New York Times is a matter of great concern to me. If there is any delay in the implementation of a green initiative for whatever reason, we can pretty much kiss any hope of change on this matter goodbye. We may already be past the point of no return and any further delay will most certainly be catastrophic. Contact your reps and put major pressure on them now to move forward on this. Otherwise, we could be looking at the Kunstler scenario playing itself out.

Though I have historically been a technological optimist, I am actually worried about any policy that is solely focused on science saving the day. There needs to be equal or more emphasis on the three Rs of the green movement: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Problem is that the first two of these Rs don't support corporations in any way, so there are not as many lobbyists devoted to them as there are to sucking money out of the Feds to do green energy research. We can support each other through reuse though. You can start by buying used items for holiday presents. This does present a diemma, though. If people make the green choice to buy used goods, the consumer spending that supports big biz will continue to spiral downward. The question is whether the economy would actually be better off if we bought used goods and new services from people in our towns and stopped supporting big biz unless there was no choice. I am not smart enough to know the answer to that question, but it certainly feels right.