Oil & The Declaration of Independence

7/4/2010

"He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, ... and destroyed the lives of our people."

That is a quote from the Declaration of Independence. It is one of the grievances against the King that justified the fight for Independence.

How could the colonies pursue Independence when so many jobs, indeed much of the economy, were dependent on trade with or through Great Britain?

With leadership and will. And a realization that an Independent America would ultimately be far more powerful and prosperous than an America subservient to a tyrant.

Today as we face an oil addiction that has "plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, ... and destroyed the lives of our people," it is fitting to ask if we have the leadership and will to pursue a Green revolution that will secure our independence from oil.

Do we realize that an America independent of oil will ultimately be more powerful and prosperous than an America subservient to the tyranny of oil?

Can we afford to wage a Green revolution to secure new clean energy jobs in the future when so many jobs and much of our economy are dependent on oil today?

Can we afford not to?

Let us remember the courageous acts of those who secured our independence in the past, and let us have the courage to secure our independence for the future.

Happy Independence Day!

John Howley
Orlando, Florida

3 Comments

Yang Maulana

7/4/2010 12:11:19 am

I am working for the community empowerment program. The program is designed to encourage community become the actor/subject of the development in their villages as well as the local government to involving community in the local development (both in planning/ as a labor in sub projects built in their villages). We facilitate community to able in self planning, managing money/activities, M&E, maintenance & sustain-ability. Community will gather and discuss to prioritize their needs (village needs) and funded by government via the program. One of their proposal is to build the electricity plan using the microhydro power. They use the water fall (not really a water fall) to make the (water)wheel moving and turn on the generator then earn the power (sorry not sure about the mechanical flow). One project, for example, which is serve the electric for about 100 households in the remote area in central sulawesi, cost about US$ 20.000. Community as a planner, manager, labor, maintenance. What do you think, is that green enough & inspiring?

Brian Mello link

7/4/2010 08:19:34 am

Hi John, we will always have a dependence on oil, in fact most of renewable energy technologies are reliant on oil for their production, manufacturing and in the case of large wind turbines, they consume a healthy amount of oil themselves. It is odd that most people are not aware how much oil and petroleum products are required to build a single wind turbine and maintain it, several hundred gallons per year, crankcase, bearings, and transmission. Not to mention the epoxy and resins that make up the blades.

We cannot make solar panels without oil, or geothermal systems, or wind turbines..even electrical grid transformers are full of oil.

As was the case during the computer revolution when people claimed how many trees would be saved as society will no longer consume so much paper...hmmm

Coal is the big problem, the focus should be on getting off the coal train, and more responsible oil resource management, including recycling.

We are dependent on petroleum products to build the renewable energy future. Its roots are deep in all forms of products, and the production of them, we are not going to change that.

The keyboard I am typing on is a petroleum product..let us focus on coal while we dread the boneheaded disaster in the gulf, we still need oil in our lives and will for a very very long time.
Happy Independence Day all

Steve Meyer link

7/5/2010 01:43:01 am

We will never start weening ourselves from dependency on oil until we stop subsidizing the consumption of oil.

The automobile industry and infrastructure in this country are tremendously subsidized. More fuel taxes are needed.

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Oil & The Declaration of Independence

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