The Real Energy Solution

By Al Paulson
Published on November 1, 2001

The Real Energy Solution

Last week, George Bush stopped by St. Paul, Minnesota, to reveal
his compassionate conservative energy plan. And though he said all
the right things about energy-efficient, low-emission technologies,
Bush’s vision cuts funding for alternative fuels and opens a hole
for drilling, mining, and fusioning that dwarfs the gap in the
Ozone layer.

At Alternet.org, Jim Hightower breaks down Bush’s
plan into ‘The Four Faux Fixes: the Bailout, the Unchain Us, the
Build more, and the Buy the Grid,’ calling them convoluted,
shortsighted, and intrinsically flawed. The solution, writes
Hightower, is a 120-year-old idea first proposed by Thomas Edison:
a ‘system that relied on small, localized generators controlled by
the users of electricity’ as opposed to the ‘centralized,
conglomerated, Rube Goldberg grid.’

Beyond the distribution question, Hightower notes that renewable
resources such as wind, solar, hydrogen, and methane are extremely
viable, though hardly tapped, sources.
-Al Paulson
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For more commentary on Bush’s so-called energy plan:

Redifining Progress
Sierra Club’s Bush’s Energy Plan
PIRG.org

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