Over at balogh's place, he has a challenge going asking people to just change a single light bulb to save a nice little chunk of black gold...texas tea. It's not a hard thing to do, go check it out. Ianqui's already done it. I'm gonna do it tonight.

Ianqui's post about the little things that we could do to make the other side of the curve a little flatter instead of so steep also consists of a list of things we could all do today...and do them pretty easily.

That's all well and good. The phrase "it's the little things" isn't just about romance I suppose.

But is this kind of "little stuff" enough? Obviously, we should all participate in these measures, but what about the people who won't/don't?

From all that we have discussed here at TOD and even the news today from OPEC about it being unable to rein in prices, it sure as hell doesn't seem like it's enough.

This post was prompted by frustration...especially with the development of alternative sources of energy. The more I read on alternative energy sources, the more disenchanted I become with the level of government mandates and investment in R&D that I see. The New Apollo legislation that the House Dems will attempt to propose is a good first step, but that has no chance of being enacted any time before there's a real crisis.

I stumbled on this little piece today over at Popular Science that discusses the right's favorite alternative fuel source, hydrogen fuel cells, and how far away they actually are at the current pace of research. Very interesting article.

"...Yet the truth is that we aren't much closer to a commercially viable hydrogen-powered car than we are to cold fusion or a cure for cancer. This hardly surprises engineers, fuel cell manufacturers and policymakers, who have known all along that the technology has been hyped, perhaps to its detriment, and that the public has been misled about what Howard Coffman, editor of fuelcell-info.com, describes as the "undeniable realities of the hydrogen economy." These experts are confident that the hydrogen economy will arrive—someday. But first, they say, we have to overcome daunting technological, financial and political roadblocks. Herewith, our checklist of misconceptions and doubts about hydrogen and the exalted fuel cell."

EDITED TO ADD: Here's a great article at OGJ discussing exactly this topic re: other technologies and alternative energy sources.

So...re: public policy, what do we do? Aren't there checklists like this for all the alternatives? What if we focus on one alternative that doesn't pan out? Should we just work on conservation?

And the bigger question in my mind is this: how do we coordinate all of those efforts without serious public sector involvement and coordination?

Go to the postings for today

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