Debate on Energy Policy Today on TV

George Staphylococcus, (woops, sure messed up that name, didn't I?) led a roundtable discussion with democrats and republicans on some news show today about energy and what will America do, to solve the energy crunch created by the gas crisis.

The Republicans were calling for more drilling in America, creation of nuclear plants, investment in alternative energy research. However, the democrat there, and I did not catch his name, was against everything, and wanted to point fingers at the Bush administration for doing nothing.

Well that's a pile of nonsense.

We are in this mess and we must solve it somehow. I wanted George, the discussion leader, to ask that democrat this: "Well, we're still consuming massive amounts of energy in America. If you don't want to drill in our country for oil and you don't want to build nuclear plants, where is this energy going to come from?"

I was just cheering for him to ask that, because there is no grand plan from our leaders. They want to partisan bicker. The American people will not change their consumption ways, without massive upheaval in our current lifestyle.

That leaves two choices: change or come with a way to get energy.

If we are to change, then we need the plan mapped out and implemented. If we are to come up with energy to maintain our lifestyle or even a lesser consumptive lifestyle, then we need a plan to get that and we need to implement and that is the job of our elected leaders.

That democrat talked like he's an idiot, just wanting to blame somebody else, and against everything the Republicans suggested. It was eye opening.

One figure quoted stood out. The average consumption of oil per year by every single American is 25 barrels per person. The average consumption per person in India and China is 2 barrels per person per year. This number is expected to rise, for both China and India. This average is created by dividing the total consumption by a nation, including for industrial use, by the population of the nation.

Can you believe how much we Americans are using? It was an astounding eye opener for me.