The Oil Drum

48 comments on The word is slowly spreading that we have have a problem

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reno on November 29, 2005 - 10:05am

The Des Moines Register's editorial board has posted two article in the past two weeks calling for technology to save the day. Their latest post says again:

President Bush should convene an energy summit involving all the interests and experts to agree on a strategy for making America the leader in the energy technologies that will eventually replace petroleum.
Congress earlier this year enacted a so-called energy policy, but it wasn't worthy of the name. Hatched in Vice President Dick Cheney's secret meetings with oil company executives, it's mostly a grab bag of tax breaks for various segments of the energy industry, largely intended to expand oil and gas drilling.
That's a backward-looking policy, expanding reliance on the energy of the past. A true energy summit should point America beyond fossil fuels to the new energy technologies of the future, whatever they might be. The country that commands the next generation of energy will be the world's economic leader. It should be a national goal to make sure that country is the U.S.A.
It will take a big national investment in research and innovation to achieve that

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051126/OPINION03/511260307/1110

The article falls short though when it calls for this:

A country with more scientists and engineers, better-trained workers and more commitment to research is a country capable of ushering in a new energy era -- and designing better automobiles.

A better designed auto is the reason we should convene a national summit to chart our energy future?? Houston, we do have a problem..

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step back on November 29, 2005 - 11:36am

Christmas season makes me think of the "I want" syndrome.
In Toys'R Us stores across the country (USA), children are learning the power of magic words and crying. If you cry hard enough and make your wants known, the desired toy magically appears.

After all, isn't this the message of the new movie, Harry Potter and the whatever? Young wizards and aspiring witches are sent to school to learn how to make magical incantations. Then poof, whatever you want appears as long as you uttered the right words.

It's the same with journalists. They utter magic words. Then poof. Thousands of smart engineers and scientists appear out of thin air. New "technologies" (whatever the heck those are) appear out of thin air. ("Oh Great Wizard in the sky, give onto us new alternate energies this day.") They rain down upon us like so many toys from the toy mega-store. Once again we get what we cried for. The world is a wonderful place, a wonderful life.

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GreyZone on November 29, 2005 - 12:04pm

The wealth of the 20th century was hinged largely on the automobile. The automobile made oil more valuable. The auto opened up suburbia for development, something that couldn't have happened otherwise. So the entire real estate boom of the 20th century was a result of the automobile. The national highway system and all the attendant construction and jobs were the result of the automobile. It's pretty clear that cars-oil-real estate were the primary drivers of the US economy for the last hundred years. Steel production fed oil production and car production. The growth in trucking came from needing to supply materials to many locations (suburbia). The growth in corporate farming came as family farms were abandoned and more people moved to the city (into the suburbs) and took up non-agricultural lines of work.

Given that over 100 years of economic "progress" was the result of the automobile, isn't it obvious why some people cannot get past that mental model on how to run a country?

You are correct in that doesn't make it right but it's very understandable.

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joule on November 29, 2005 - 2:10pm

-- A country with more scientists and engineers, better-trained workers and more commitment to research is a country capable of ushering in a new energy era and designing better automobiles ---

Well, that sure as hell doesn't sound like the US anymore, does it?