Reply #38: It's All Good [View All]

[davekriss]

Don't misunderstand, I agree that TDP, if real (and especially at the economics cited in the first post), is good. It could supplement oil consumption and deal with waste issues. However, it cannot supplant all oil consumption. I note that the claim, above, is to replace all oil imports, not all oil consumption. I find even that smaller ambition doubtful given the land mass factor I already cited.

However...

TDP, if it works, would supplement oil consumption, softening the negative slope of Hubbert's Peak, buying us time to reorder society in ways that require less energy, and possibly buying us time to scientific discovery that truly weans us off our oil addiction. TDP, if it works, would be a good thing. But note the investments to do both, reorder society into its post-industrial form, and to discover and harness alternate energy forms, is likely more massive than any investment yet made. Yet the only budget growth I've seen is the U.S. military budget, which has reached the GDP percentage (3.8%) recommended by PNAC.

Panacea or not, what I don't yet see is the political will to exploit alternate energy sources. Instead I see militarization and the quest for imperial empire. The USG seems bent on ensuring the open flow of mideast and Caspian Basin oil and gas for US consumption, even if by gunpoint. It has marshalled the public behind terrorist fears and uber-patriotism to pursue these imperial wars to the point where we can say Karl Rove makes Goebbels proud. At what point, though, does the conflict widen to include energy-hungry nations with genuine retalitory force? When will Russia counter our imperial ventures in the Caspian Basin? When will a united Europe protect its interests in the Middle East? Recall that PNAC, in "Rebuilding America's Defenses", lists China as one of the nations where we'd like to achieve "regime change". We seem to be on the path of military conflict to secure dwindling supplies rather than a search for alternative energies and societal restructuring.

Our Oil President and Oil Vice President are fully informed of the rapid pace and dangers of oil depletion. Matthew Simmons, an international oil investment banker who has written extensively on depletion issues, was a member of Cheney's infamous Energy Task Force. Bush is informed by the Baker Study conducted by the James Baker III Institute at Rice University (Baker, from GHWB's Administration, was the Republithug attorney marshaling the press to conformity in Florida in 2000).

It's clear GWB has made his choice: Invest in the military; draft war plans for Iraq and Afghanistan and who else?; draft USA PATRIOT Act, the means to quell future internal dissent; provoke and LIHOP 9-11; execute aforemention plans; draft USA PATRIOT Act II so that dissenters can lose citizenship and be expatriated; rattle sabres to marshal public around next war (will it by Syria or Iran?).

The only problem with the Chimp's choice is that, though we may grab dwindling supplies of oil for elite consumption, the rest of us are left to face the grim future of a retreating global carrying capacity and mass die-off. So keep waving them flags! I don't think the dystopia has been written yet that captures the future strife that will unfold.