Will Energy Policy Ever Transcend Oil Pricing?

In the summer of 2008, little more than a year ago, the average American had to choose between filling his gas tank at an average cost of $60.00 and having lunch. All the while the titans of energy were tabulating their take of this bonanza and how they could report these obscene profits without creating a fervor.

Predictably the politicians were indignant about the windfall of shameless wealth being created in the corporate trough of greed at the expense of the working public. Some even decried that the middle eastern countries were the largest recipient of the transfer of wealth in the world's history conveniently forgetting, of course, that the American domestic oil companies were there with both hands out. With little partisan rancor it was decided that public policy needed to be put in place to move the United States toward energy independence. Of course politics came into play relative to drilling and where. The mighty oil companies energized their lobbyists to promote drilling in some of the most ecologically fragile areas on the promise of abundant oil and clean extraction techniques and then as if by command, oil began its descent to more palatable pricing, falling to less than $2.00 per gallon by Christmas and then hovering in the mid $2 range for almost a year now.

And where have the cries for energy policy gone, the need for renewable energy sources, energy independence in a greener America? Just as every spike in oil pricing is followed by a like move in inflation, so to is the call for energy policy followed by silence as the politicians throw their words around the new crisis that has supplanted the oil scare.

The United States is in desperate need for energy policy, policies that will create sustained financial incentives to develop renewable energy source technologies using the sun, wind and waters that are in such abundance and clean alternatives to fossil based fuels. The development of a logical plan that would support a public transportation program could create jobs in an economy that is desperate for new employment while making meaningful changes on the way people and businesses view their energy use.

Looking at the drivers of Hummers should be enough to drive home the point that GM went bankrupt because they were lazy and unwilling. If we aren't careful the United States will be the world's GM.

Energy Policy needs to be at the forefront of political debate, not a forgotten memory from a difficult summer.