To: bentway who wrote (571207 ) 6/12/2010 4:49:32 PM From: tejek Read Replies (1) | Respond to My congressmen will hear from me this weekend re. this subject.COMING TO TERMS WITH A 'DEBILITATING ENERGY STALEMATE'.... As we saw this week on the vote on a scheme to strip the EPA of its power to regulate carbon emissions, every single Republican in the Senate, and a few too many center-right Democrats, want no such reevaluation. the Innovation Council, featuring some high-profile participants, offered a very compelling blueprint for sustainable energy strategy. Ron Brownstein explained that the group "issued a mayday manifesto urging a massive public-private effort to accelerate research into clean-energy innovations." It calls for a national energy strategy centered on a $16 billion annual federal investment in energy research -- as much, the group pointedly notes, as the United States spends on imported oil every 16 days. It's tempting to think that conservative policymakers, if nothing else, would care about American competitiveness on the global stage -- a concept that has no ideological bias. Republicans should take note, then, that as the rest of the world invests heavily in clean-energy technology -- and we don't -- our trade deficit worsens, and jobs and industries that could grow here, have no choice but to go elsewhere. If the stalemate is going to be broken, and the country is going to pursue a more responsible approach, policymakers are going to have to hear from the public on this. At this point, head-in-the-sand Republicans and anxiety-ridden Democrats would prefer to do nothing -- ignoring global warming, maintaining our oil dependence; undermining American competitiveness, ignoring job creation, failing to reduce our budget deficit -- because they think that's what the public wants.
