Saturday, May 8, 2010

We Have Met the Enemy

I hate to sound like a scold, but every one us is responsible for the oil spill and the workers who died in the Gulf and in West Virginia’s coal mines. BP and Massey Energy may deserve bankruptcy (and jail time for their executives) but there’s no escaping that they did it for us.

Hydrocarbon production is a dangerous, filthy job. They are only doing it because our great leaders think every American has the right to cheap fuel to power our extravagant lifestyles. Don’t get me wrong, I love my car and my warm house - but this can’t go on forever. We are living at the tail end of the hydrocarbon era and our great grandchildren will unquestionably ask what the heck were we thinking.

If our politicians had any guts, they would start raising the gas tax a penny a month and keep raising it until we stop wasting it. If they could see past the next election they would understand this is the only way to get us out of this mess without destroying the economy.

But they don’t, and will wait until the whole ship sinks before they do something to stop it.