Some Solutions To Our Problems

As the character in the movie "Night Shift", played by Michael Keaton says, "I'm an idea man." So, too, am I. I think of all the problems facing America, and I don't see hopelessness. I see possibilities to stop the madness which has been created and redirect our energies into policies which will truly make a difference. Our problems are many, so I can't spell out all the solutions in one blog post. So, I will tackle our problems one by one, which is the purpose for creating this blog in the first place.
With this in mind, today I want to talk about solutions for energy. Think about our planet and the resources which it contains. The vast majority of the oil on the planet is controlled by nations which, at their core, hate us. Oh, the Saudis pretend to be our friends, but only because we enrich them by buying our oil from them. In reality, they look on us as a decadent, lazy nation with no morals or values except worship of the dollar. The problem is that our entire economy is based on hydrocarbon energy, and the automobile is essential in our society. What, then, to do?
First of all, I think that the only energy sources which make sense are ones that don't cost us anything. Solar power, wind power, geothermal, and hydroelectric power are all given to us by nature. We should be working with the fervor of a Manhattan Project on perfecting efficient solar cells. Electric cars should be coated with solar materials, or perhaps some engaging entrepeneur will invent a paint product which contains solar power capability. Electric cars shouldn't need to plug in to re-charge, they should only need to be parked in daylight.
Obviously, this kind of technology is a ways away, but perhaps not so far away as we might think. For sure, the big energy companies are not going to like this type of paradigm shift and will throw up whatever obstacles they can to stop it. Why? Because they can't sell sunlight, that's why!
Since this type of technology is a few years in the future, we need to use technologies we control for our short term energy needs. We need wind turbines powering our homes and neighborhoods. We need clean coal for our electrical needs which can't be met by wind and hydro power. We have the filtering and scrubbing technology to make this possible. We need to convert our automobiles to natural gas and wean ourselves from foreign oil. This is something which could be done relatively simply and with minimal cost. We need to get most over the road trucks off of our highways and start to haul freight with trains. We could create hubs where local trucks would come and pick up the trailers carried to the hub by a train, and the trucks would then deliver the goods. Having large rigs driving hundreds of thousands of miles per year, especially when they are dead-heading, is inefficiency at its worst. Changing the way we do things would eliminate jobs in certain industries, such as oil transportation and storage, but it would add jobs in other industries, such as those which would create our natural gas infrastructure.
To accomplish any of this, we must first make our lawmakers immune to the power of the lobbyists and the intoxicating effects of big money. How do we do this? This is fodder for another post, which I will write tomorrow, May 3rd.