The US is gearing up to celebrate Independence Day, the day when citizens vowed to fight against crushing taxes, inflation, and a rising price of necessities — Americans took a stand then against tyranny, and fought. Now as the country picnics and watches fireworks to commemorate that fight, is the situation any different?
Taxes, inflation, cost of necessities — what was once tea, is now Texas Tea — oil, all factors point to another fight. Is energy the new American Revolution? In this new battle for independence [1], are citizens willing to sacrifice to win freedom from the tyrannous and costly addiction we have to standard forms of energy?
John McCain's plan for a modern energy revolution [2] takes that parallel seriously — he's dubbed his energy revolution the "Lexington Project," named for the town where, according to his speech [3] last week, "Americans asserted their independence once before." To see the battle plan for energy independence, .
McCain's Lexington Project includes:
- Expanding Domestic Oil And Natural Gas Exploration And Production: "John McCain believes it is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions [4] and to put our own reserves to use. There is no easier or more direct way to prove to the world that we will no longer be subject to the whims of others than to expand our production capabilities."
- Taking Action Now To Break Our Dependency On Foreign Oil By Reforming Our Transportation Sector: Which includes innovation incentives [5] like his Clean Car Challenge.
- Investing In Clean, Alternative Sources Of Energy: The plan commits $2 billion annually to clean coal technologies and 45 new nuclear power plants [6] by 2030.
- Protecting Our Environment By Addressing Climate Change: Basically this: "A climate cap-and-trade [7] mechanism would set a limit on greenhouse gas emissions and allow entities to buy and sell rights to emit, similar to the successful acid rain trading program of the early 1990s."
- Promoting Energy Efficiency: By making the federal government conserve too — since they are the largest electricity consumer on the planet.
- Addressing Speculative Pricing Of Oil: No Carter-inspired windfall profits tax and strict policing on energy market-wagering abuses.
Will this do it? Is the US headed into a new revolution? Is the US ready to wage a war for energy independence? Is it time for a Boston SUV party [8]?
Source [9]