The Sietch Blog

Jan 25
Actions, Not Words

Written by Rt

You probably weren’t very old, perhaps not even alive, when Jimmy Carter was president but I was (and a few before that). Let me tell you nothing has changed (Jimmy was a good guy, that’s why he didn’t last long).

They all play up to the popular opinion but no one follows up with results. This example is the National Renewable Energy Laboratory that was established 30 years ago. Pardon me but WTF!

Thirty years after it was founded by President Jimmy Carter, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at the edge of the Rockies here still does not have a cafeteria.

Now, personally, a cafeteria is not very important, but several of the (not very large) places I have worked have had them. You can not convince me a nation that got to the moon using slide rules could not have come up with a better renewable energy source than they have by now. Ladies and gentlemen it is about priorities. Here is a telling example:

The hopes for this neglected lab brightened a bit just over a year ago when President Bush made the first presidential call on the lab since Mr. Carter and spelled out a vision for the not-too-distant future in which solar and wind power would help run every American home and cars would operate on biofuels made from residues of plants.

Ok George, how ya doin on that?

But one year after the president’s visit, the money flowing into the nation’s primary laboratory for developing renewable fuels is actually less than it was at the beginning of the Bush administration.

That’s six years. I am furious. We have multiple weapons labs - what’s their funding? Yahoo lists 33 national lab web sites - how is our money being spent? Where is the oversight (Congress!)? Where are their “report cards”? Too bad Halliburton isn’t in the business of renewable energy - I bet a lot of money would flow their way then (oh, a lot of money already flows their way - you just need a war).

I see that the budget for the NREL is $200M. Is that someone’s idea of a joke? If you have five potential renewable energy sources you can give them $40M each! Hell, we build airplanes that cost $1 BILLION each! Obviously our government has decided the old way of security (war) is better then the new way (energy independence). However:

Prominent Democrats are talking about doubling the budget of the renewable energy lab, and otherwise greatly increase the priority of producing clean energy.

I think two times nothing is still nothing. I’ve heard talk before. How much of a priority is it? More than a bomber?

After you read the article above please use a handy tool here, or here, to communicate with your reps. I say communicate, not yell at, not threaten. You are trying to let them know what your concerns are, not act like a local thug on the street. That said, if you don’t get what you want vote them out next time. You do vote - right?