The other thing I was wondering was how many people have worked in corporate America or for large bureaucracies in general. And my curiosity stems from whether people who have worked in these organizations feel optimistic about our chances for solving this problem. And if you do, why?
My feeling now is that the political process is not a real solution to this problem. You need a LBJ and neither candidate is that. McCain is certainly not an LBJ; he is not even popular within his own caucus. Obama is not an old hand like LBJ; he is more JFK than LBJ. Without a leader who can push this through, then it is just K Street's politics as usual, which means: "clean coal." And if you are expecting utilities, Detroit, the corn states, oil companies to solve this problem, well that is just silly. Private industry is going to respond to market signals or government direction. The market, though, isn't sending a signal to transform. Now that prices are low again and the economy is in recession, I feel we are screwed on a solution. And all of those special interest will unite to scuttle anything meaningful. But that is just the Yin in me speaking.
As usual, very well done by Frontline. The VPs for Exxon and GM did not come off looking good after those interviews.
I think the problem is do-able and solvable, but not with our Congress. We just need to make the policy that FORCES Exxon and BP and Shell to spend their billions of cash on alternative fuels instead of continuing to subsidize a carbon economy.
However, this would require actual legislating sans lobbyists, and the Democrats are just as addicted to the insider lobbyist culture as Republicans are. It will require leadership. Unclear if the leadership exists -- we know Pelosi, Hoyer, Reid, and Durbin don't have it.
That's just us. The other thing that Heat drove home is again how the Electoral College distorts public policy. The places that have the greatest interest in coal, corn-based ethanol, and the existing auto fleet are all critical states needed for the electoral win. It means parochial interests win out. And as a result, we as a nation suffer from lack of a clear direction.
The other thing that was amazing was the entire story about the capital power plant. Byrd and McConnell wrote letters to the Architect of the Capital threatening to cut his funding if he switched the fuel source from coal. Amazing!
This wasn't anything I haven't seen or heard before. But it just deepened my pessimism. The final overall point was how much we have invested in assets and labor in the existing process. And that is the ultimate barrier to any change. You have to overcome this massive barrier to change to achieve anything.
Though maybe there is hope. Maybe I am short changing Obama and he can do something that no one else can. Maybe this economic meltdown has sufficiently brought the auto companies to their knees that they won't be a barrier anymore. Maybe the departure of Bush/Cheney combined with Delay's ill-fated move to eliminate Democratic seniority in the Texas delegation finally spells a temporary end to big oil's power in Washington. And then all that is left are big utilities and big coal.
But this is all predicated, of course, on what the priorities are. If we spend a lot of money on healthcare, then there isn't going to be a lot left for anything else. I am still left with the feeling that if fossil fuels are going to kill us, then we're dead.
I missed the McConnell/Byrd part -- I'll have to try and record the doc to watch the beginning. Having McConnell gone would certainly help our cause.
I will say that it just deepens my feeling that we'll need term limits in order to get good government. Dinosaurs like John Dingell get to wield too much power and camp out as the chair of a committee, to the detriment of the country. People like Byrd and McConnell become the servants of coal interests.
However, the only way we'll get a plan to actually confront global warming and switching to non-carbon-based, renewable energy sources is if the energy players are completely cut out of the negotiations, and the legislating is done in the public interest. Maybe that will be possible next year, but probably not. You can surely bet that the big industries that would be most affected will not be switching their bets to the Democratic side, so change will not be easy.