Our New Man

"It will be the policy of my administration to reverse our dependence on foreign oil while building a new energy economy that will create millions of jobs."

...HOW MUCH BETTER CAN IT GET??...

He has specifics -- He's demanding of automakers that they raise fuel economy standards, asserting that:

"This will help us create incentives to develop new energy that will make us less dependent on the oil that endangers our security, our economy, and our planet."

Plus, the EPA has been ordered to reconsider California's request to mandate lower emissions.

"At a time of such great challenge for America, no single issue is as fundamental to our future as energy. America's dependence on oil is one of the most serious threats that our nation has faced.  It bankrolls dictators, pays for nuclear proliferation and funds both sides of our struggle against terrorism.  It puts the American people at the mercy of shifting gas prices, stifles innovation and sets back our ability to compete.  These urgent dangers to our national and economic security are compounded by the long term threat of climate change, which, if left unchecked, could result in violent conflict, terrible storms, shrinking coastlines and irreversible catastrophe.  These are the facts."

"Embedded in American soil and the wind and the sun, we have the resources to change.  Our scientists, businesses and workers have the capacity to move us forward.  It falls on us to choose whether to risk the peril that comes with our current course, or to seize the promise of energy independence.  For the sake of our security, our economy and our planet, we must have the courage and commitment to change."

"We hold no illusion about the task that lies ahead.  I cannot promise a quick fix; no single technology or set of regulations will get the job done.  But we will commit ourselves to steady, focused, pragmatic pursuit of an America that is freed from our energy dependence and empowered by a new energy economy that puts millions of our citizens to work."

The proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that's before congress now would "put 460,000 Americans to work with clean energy investments and double the capacity to generate alternative energy over the next three years.  It will lay down 3,000 miles of transmission lines to deliver this energy to every corner of our country.  It will save taxpayers 2 billion dollars a year...it will save working families hundreds of dollars on their energy bills...This is the boost that our economy needs and the new beginning that our future demands."

As the president signed the executive orders, my eyes welled -- and I am not ashamed.  He's only a few days in.  He's obviously been busy.  And, selfishly, I felt that MY president had finally arrived.  Someone was cheering when Bush got elected and re-elected, and that's just fine.  Now I get to have a turn, and so do all the like-minded people I know who have been yearning so deeply for this.  

Can you imagine?  He tied national security to environmentalism!  He put issues that happen to matter to me at the forefront of his administration's priorities.  I HAVE NEVER WITNESSED THAT BEFORE.  It wasn't Afghanistan or Iraq or North Korea (of course I care about those countries too)...it was, most responsibly, AMERICA.  AMERICA, AMERICA!

I was looking at a coffee table book today full of the pictures and stories of the pioneers.  Now, there's a lot I disagree with about how the West was settled -- sometimes the fact that it was settled at all irks me.  But peering into the faces of those men and women in old tintypes (our ancestors, our precursors for better or worse), I saw the day's mood reflected.  Terra nova!  Moving forward into the unknown with the promise of labor and difficulty and being confronted with startling new things.  That's adventure.  We may be able to right some of the wrongs of the last century or two and steward the land consistently.  Build sustainability into the Constitution, if not through formal rewriting, then simply by understanding its necessity as a given.

That is one long transcription and ramble.  I just kept finding it necessary to include things.  If you haven't already seen it, you can view the full broadcast, made yesterday the 26th,  here, on MSNBC.  

--Nell

The Day Was Strange and Wonderful

Buoyed by the inauguration, I spent the day making calls for the company...which, by the way, is changing its name to 'Fleet Fuel Testing'; the old rubric was inspiring too many calls of: "Where's the Biodiesel?" (we don't make Biodiesel, we just sell the test kits).

The reason the broadcast caused me to sit doing secretarial work is simple: it's my Change.

One of the fellows I spoke to today was vehemently against Biodiesel use and said (and this is, I believe, pretty close to verbatim):

"We shoulda blown up **** and **** and all them and put a prison over all of it and sucked them dry, then sold gas for 25 cents a gallon.  If they don't care about us, why should I care about them?"

Ironically, this guy services agricultural equipment like tractors -- and farmers are the ones who stand to benefit perhaps the most from a biofuels industry.

So, casually I said "That sounds like quite a plan, and I can see your point.  But you know what's true about biodiesel is that it's made in America...jobs...economy boost," etc.

He didn't buy it, telling me how good money is paid to thousands of workers to labor for oil overseas.  But he did seem relieved to blow off steam.  Once his kettle is whistled out, I hope it comes clear that the seed was planted.  You never know.  Life is interesting because of guys like this.  There's a deeply jingoistic survival instinct at play -- the kind of instinct that has sometimes made the difference between triumph and defeat.  And yes, I really could see his point: If we're so powerful, and God is on our side, why can't we just take what we need?  

Power, in the strong-arming sense, is (or should be) a thing of the past.  America has so much.  We don't need to bully anybody else into coughing up something we think we deserve.  And the problem with the view above is that just about anyone can justify just about anything with it -- and they have.  *****************************************************************************

Those represent a whole paragraph that was perhaps a little too zealous to post.

But I hope that we're going to see this change.  Well, not 'see'.  Effect.  As I told Erin, I will be sorely disappointed if we don't.  All we can do is our best in the moment...each and every one of us.  

--Nellamity Jane