The 700 billion bailout for the greedy and unscrupulous, and of course, the just plain stupid, does contain one ray of sunshine. One of the bills thrown in with the bailout is going to be of some help to bicycle commuters. Federal road building funds are going to have to recognize that bicycles and pedestrians have rights and should certainly be included if we're ever going to break our dependency on foreign oil. The bill also contains provisions to reimburse companies for the benefits they offer bicycle commuters. You can read more about it here. While you're at the site, you might want to consider joining. The League has been around for a long time and they have your best interest at heart.
I saw a short interview with T. Boone Pickens on the news Tuesday night. Ole' Boone is all about promoting wind and natural gas but never once mentioned parking some of the damn cars. He did mention $300/barrel oil and $10/gallon gas. That would definitely tend to make a few of us park some cars. If the infrastructure was in place to ride the train, take a bus, ride a bike or walk before that ten dollar gas hit, it would certainly make things much less painful.
The lack of foresight in this country just amazes me. I remember the gas crunch of the seventies and Jimmy Carter putting solar panels on the White House. Here we are thirty years later and we're still arguing about the same crap. No one in Washington wants to take the reins and come up with a long term energy plan other than drive a hybrid or drill for our last drop of oil now. Of course, it may be that even if you try and get all the smart guys together, they couldn't come up with a reasonable consensus anyway. Gerald Ford tried that with the economy. When the WIN buttons couldn't do it, he brought all the great economic minds together and all of those the geniuses couldn't do it either. I read a book earlier this year by Lee Iacocca called Where Have all the Leaders Gone? and he hits the nail right on the head. It seems in both political and corporate America, nobody wants to make the tough decisions.
So, now that we've saved Wall Street and everyone with a mortgage, except those who've acted responsibly, of course, we can focus on what's best for our country - things like infrastructure and energy policy. So relax and take the kids for a walk, ride your bike and get out and enjoy the beautiful fall weather. I'm going to see the Superintendent to find out what benefits he's offering me for riding to work come January 1st.
2 comments:
I recently read in Hot, Flat, and Crowded about solar panels being installed on the White House and fuel economy standards being increased during the Carter administration. According to the author, when oil prices went back down, the Reagan administration reduced fuel economy standards and removed the solar panels from the White House. Not good!
It's always good to have a prez looking to the future. Like the prices were never going to go up again.
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