The Iconoclast Investor

I think of myself as a very reasonable man, and I don’t resort to the rant mode often.  It requires lots of energy and sheds very little light.  But with a watershed election just behind us, I’ve been thinking more than usual about the national policies of the United States, and there’s one huge issue that just drives me nuts.

The issue is energy, and our national energy policy … or lack of one.  And that’s a crime.

After all, it’s not as if the high cost and limited supply of oil just sneaked up on us.  Is our sense of history so stunted that the Oil Crisis of the 1970s is too ancient to be considered relevant?

We learned during the Oil Embargo, when OPEC was first flexing its muscles, that being dependent on foreign oil was painful, embarrassing and potentially disastrous.  Foreign countries used the biggest hammer they had to put several dents in our collective head, with economic consequences that lasted for years.

Accordingly, given that protecting our citizens from threats posed by foreign powers is the prime constitutional duty handed to those who occupy our highest offices, it became the primary duty of the federal government to take that hammer away.  It’s laughably obvious.

It was so obvious, in fact, that after a few years of cheesy miniature cars and a small burst of solar energy buildout, the entire alternative energy/energy conservation movement was allowed to fall off the national agenda.

The movement continued underground, but the federal government, the entity with the responsibility to protect our nation (and sufficient power to actually get the job done) just dropped the ball.

*No ambitious standards for automobile fleet fuel efficiency.
*No massive support for wind or solar or tidal or geothermal or even nuclear, for that matter.
*No game-changing commitment to railroads or public transportation.

And remember, this is not a matter of environmental or social policy, this is about the economic foundation of our economy and its vulnerability to foreign threats.

This ball has been dropped so many times by so many people that I can’t even figure out who to blame!  The administrations (of both parties) for not leading forcefully?  The legislative branch for caving in to lobbyists of auto and oil companies?  Regulatory agencies for slacking off on enforcing even the wimpy standards we have on the books?  Private citizens for acting like drunken pigs in a corn bin?

The private sector has been making progress, but it’s been irregular and unsupported.  It’s not really fair to expect giant oil companies to demonstrate a huge commitment to deploying technologies that will interfere with the sales of existing products.  The scientists at Big Oil and Big Auto have made some awesome discoveries, but the real breakthroughs (like First Solar’s reduced-silicon chips) have come from tiny firms.

What I think should have happened (and what I would like to see happen in the future) is for the U.S. government to make the kind of investment in energy independence that it has made in the Star Wars missile shield.  I think a case that can be made that freeing the United States from the reliance on oil from hostile nations stands a better chance of protecting us from our enemies than does an unreliable missile shield.

I’m not a conspiracy buff.  I have no opinion on the notion that the U.S. is fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan to protect our oil.  Similarly, I have no real evidence that any car company has ever knowingly suppressed any technology that would have revolutionized the automobile, nor any oil company quashed a miraculous fuel saver.  All of these things may have happened.

The one thing I’m sure hasn’t happened is a burst of leadership and vision that can wean my country from its oil supply.  It’s matter of national security, and I hope to see it in my lifetime.