Oil Gone Wild

An entry posted at HuffPo laid out some recommendations for helping get on a fast track toward energy independence, focusing on vehicles, and suggesting that a major public investment in re-tooling the auto industry would be a good plan...

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

I suppose this is where I lose my cred as a liberal.

But the laziness, stubbornness, and greed of the American auto industry darn near killed it in the 1970s. These same brilliant traits are now helping to deliver another set of disasters revolving around fuel inefficiency.

I'm sorry, but I'm done giving these jackasses any more breaks. Any bit of public financing support MUST include a COMPLETE upper management (i.e. the "deciders") purge. NO auto industry insiders, no family of board members - no more anointing more incompetent, irresponsible heirs to the industry thrones. It's done nothing but cause disaster in this nation.

The other thing that ticks me off is this constant drone of "create millions of new jobs" by converting to non-oil-based industries. Every politician and pundit crows this misleading line. The reality is that we are REPLACING EXISTING jobs with NEW jobs - not ADDING jobs to the economy. The net may be a little higher or a little lower, but it's not going to be some sort of magical BOON to the economy.

Embracing logical concepts of sustainable lifestyles is the proper goal. We need is to change the basics of our energy consumption. It is just as silly to claim that moving from unsustainable behavior to a sustainable behavior will destroy the economy as it is to imply that it will drive massive prosperity.

The reality is that the economy is in shambles for reasons beyond oil. Until those problems are honestly addressed, the corporations grown around new energy solutions will soon be pushing for subsidies or demanding to move their manufacturing to India or whatever place has the most affordable slave labor to abuse. So whereas the technology may become available, the economy will still be strained by its current structure.

The last thing I can fit here is the concept of plugin cars. We make the electricity by burning stuff - mainly gas, oil, and coal. This is part of the problem, too, and you are not only failing to address it, but amplifying it.

In short, your plan is weak.