Hydrocarbon Cake

I make no pretenses to understand politics, global macroeconomics and shenanigans. Usually I try my best to do my own thing and ignore all "news" completely.

Occasionally though, you read something which makes your blood boil and you can't help but pass judgement in your merry ignorance. Granted, the situation is much more complex than appears. Granted, many people are working very very hard (I hope). But reading Jubak's column this morning lead to much eye-rolling and spitting of venom, especially final few paragraphs.

Before we get to that I must say that I am an environmentalist at heart, I suppose. Not in a knitted-hemp-scarf kind of a way, more in a respect the Earth way. I cycle to work primarily because I enjoy it and it is healthy, but I do value the independance it provides me from oil even in a miniscule way. I have yet to see any arguments with merit for exactly why the buggery bollocks we aren't doing everything that we can every single minute of the day to develop a realistic and viable consumer alternative to oil.

From Jubak. The last bit is the cherry on the icing on the cake that was just taken:

Even by the dismal standards of U.S. energy policy, this is hard to believe. Congress went home for the July Fourth recess without extending the solar, wind and other alternative-energy tax credits set to expire on Dec. 31.

CEOs of alternative-energy companies say that if the tax credits aren't extended soon, they'll start to see customers delay or cancel projects. Because this is an election year, Congress has only a relatively small window for renewing the credits, which are intended to increase manufacturing volumes and bring down costs for these technologies. Congress is scheduled to meet only for another three weeks in July and three weeks in September before shutting down for the elections.

As if to underline our government's astonishing ability to do nothing as oil climbs above $140 a barrel, the U.S. Bureau of Land management, which manages millions of acres of empty, sunny land in the Southwest, has slapped a moratorium on new applications to put solar collectors on federal land. The agency says it has a backlog of 130 applications and will not accept more before it completes a regional environmental-impact study. The study would take 22 months.