I hate to be contrary after an amen, but I have to be true to my nature. Even if we had all the electrical energy we could use, we still have the problem of electric cars with limited range before long recharges and expensive batteries. We could probably build hundreds of geothermal power plants in Iceland–with their permission, of course–but the energy needs to be portable and useful where there are people.

Further, the big companies don’t really stuff their cash under the mattress. They keep some in reserve in banks which loan them out at interest so they grow over time. The loans can be used to start other companies or to finance expansions or repairs. More and more they are being used to finance governmental debt making short term life better.

Reserves are usually a small part of what corporations do with their money. The big parts include dividends to the people who invested in the company in the first place or the people who bought their shares of the company. Those people in turn either put the dividend money in savings or spend it. In savings it will likely finance other ventures unless the savings go into financing government debt too. The expenditures will go toward purchases of goods and services which make the shareholders’ lives better and give jobs to those who supply them. Sometimes those benefiting live elsewhere.

Some of the money goes into diversification, starting or buying into other companies in case the demand for the primary product dries up.

Some of the ventures within the companies go into research and development.

David considering transactions

Foreign oil is a dagger on our necks. It would be great to have other energy resources developed, but we’re not using what we have now!

Build a Nuclear Plant, or even a dozen – and continue building with the future in mind – perhaps we could even be the South’s main electricity provider.

Think of all those jobs.

Despite rumors to the contrary, nobody’s forcing us to buy from other places or to buy what we don’t need or keep what we don’t want anymore. Those are individual decisions made by free people. They often decide they wante more–not less.

The only way to stop them from making those free choices is to force them to do things OUR way, whatever that happens to be. It’s fine if OUR way is MY way, but not so fine if OUR way is somebody else’s way and YOU might not like MY way.

Further, even though President Bush called it an addiction, it isn’t. We use petroleum as an energy source because it is cheaper, safer and more portable than most alternative sources of energy.

Oil is liquid-easy to move around.
Has a high energy content-a little goes a long way.
Burns fairly cleanly so less pollution problems than with coal or wood.
Does not have to be mined, so usually there’s less environmental damage than any other source of energy.
Versatile so we can pave roads with part of it, make pipe, clothes, dyes; run ships, ambulances, power plants, trucks, go carts, chain saws, street sweepers, tanks on it.

The problem isn’t that it’s so bad but that it’s so good.

There’re two ways to wean people off it. Use more force than any dictator in history has ever had, or find a superior replacement. Stick or carrot, your choice.

David for freedom