Oil spill, technology and energy policy

Before I begin, I need to apologize for the misspellings and misuse of words in last night’s blog. I typed it without proof-reading it and then I hit post. Since I am my own writer and I do not have a secretary to proof materials for me, I frequently make mistakes. I should have spelled campaign correctly, I should have used the word “threw” instead of “through and I should have said “more important than their” instead of “more important that their”….. “Should have” is a catch all phrase which seems to be part of the language of attack. I am human. I make mistakes so forgive me my errors in yesterday’s blog, the one’s I’ll make in today’s blog and the mistakes I make in future blogs. The typos are there but the message remains unchanged.

Speaking of “should have” we are thinking that there should have been a working cut off valve on the oil well in the Gulf. As a mother, I learned early to have multiple backup plans. Things never went as I expected them to. BP should have considered that same idea. We are now looking at an uncertain time of oil leakage, damage to the environment, losses to the shrimping and fishing business, loss of tourism to the Gulf Coast beaches and loss of income to the thousands of people who work on the Gulf Coast. With loss of tourism it is safe to say that many businesses will not need as many employees. Waiters and waitresses will not make as many tips. Stores will not sell as many goods.

The oil leak is the pebble hitting the pond. The rings of economic issues will grow steadily as the ripples of income loss spread through the Gulf economy. There is no way to effectively predict how bad it will be until the oil leak is plugged.

Today, on the way home from work, I listened to the news. BP is going to give money to shrimper’s for income lost as a result of the oil contamination on the Gulf of Mexico. This is really a great gesture to the shrimping industry. BP is demonstrating that it is a good corporate citizen.

I still have some questions about the oil spill and BP’s generosity. When Katrina hit and all of the refineries were shut down in order to do massive repairs, oil companies still had huge corporate profits because they raised the price of the gasoline they sold. We paid almost $4.00 per gallon in Atlanta. BP’s stock holders did not suffer because we pulled the money out of our pockets. I suspect that once again BP stock holders will not suffer. BP will pay money to the state governments, shrimpers and then pass those costs of doing business along to the people who buy gasoline. Gasoline here in Atlanta rose 5 cents a gallon over the weekend.

It doesn’t matter where the money for the clean up comes from, whether from BP or from the government, you can expect to pay for it. If BP picks up the cost of the clean-up, they simply pass the cost on the consumers. If the government pays for it, they borrow the money from China, and raise your taxes to pay the debt. Either way the American Public has just been handed the bill.

When John F. Kennedy started his race to the moon program in the early 1960s, the nation was facing a growing unemployment problem. Using the need to protect the nation against Soviet attacks, Kennedy’s plan created the largest technological boom in history. When we consider some of the products that grew from the space program the list is so long that it is mind boggling. Computer technology, computer games, laser medicine, communication technology, laser industrial tools, robotics are only a few of the areas that have benefited from the technological investment.

The space and flight simulators that the military developed have become the video games of today. In my lifetime, science fiction has become science reality. My eyes were operated on using laser technology. I use a cell phone with blue tooth technology. The computer on my desk is already out dated but it will do more than a computer that filled a room in the early 1970s. All of this from the technological investment this nation spent to put a man on the moon. Placing a man on the moon wasn’t as important at the development of the technology needed to do it.

Imagine what could happen if the government turned the same effort and financial support toward the energy issue that it turned toward placing a man on the moon. Energy is as serious a problem today as Sputnik was in the cold war. While we faced nuclear destruction then, we face life style destruction today if we cannot maintain a sustainable energy program. Few people in America could survive (or would want to survive) without the energy supplies we are currently using.

During the oil embargo in the early 1970s we realized that we could not continue to rely on other countries for oil. We are right back where we were then. We need an energy policy that supports the technological development of alternative and renewable energy supplies. Right now we are using some biofuels, some wind power, some solar power. The utility companies would do well to invest in the development of new energies. The government has a key role in developing alternative and affordable energy solutions. This investment would reduce our dependence on foreign oil and provide cleaner and safer energy sources for an environmentally endangered planet. It is something that we could pass on to our children with pride. We need to fix the problem while it is still fixable and before it becomes a critical situation. We had trouble getting gasoline in Atlanta after Katrina. If we’re not thoughtful and don’t develop a plan now, then we are placing country and our futures at risk.

I can see it now. Houses used to have windmills that pumped water. Could it be possible to go back to this and have the windmills generate power instead of pumping water? I don’t know. Maybe some of you would have some suggestions.

We can’t change the oil spill problem now. That horse is already out of the barn. What we can do is reduce our dependence on oil.