Mobilize to meet energy crisis
With gasoline at four dollars a gallon and pundits presaging 5 and 6 dollars a gallon in the near future, it is safe to say we are in the midst of an energy crisis.
The politicians are offering short term fixes like removing federal tax from the cost of gasoline, dipping into our strategic oil reserve, or moving ahead with off-shore drilling for oil. None of these attempts at easing prices will work
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What will work is a paradigm shift. We have to take a gigantic leap from one system of energy to another. Oil is a finite fuel. It will not last forever. Some say we are at peak oil - that point from which production of oil reaches a terminal decline.
When Japan bombed Pear Harbor, this country's military arsenal was old and depleted. The attack in Hawaii alone nearly destroyed our fleet. So Roosevelt did the only thing he could do to restore our power to wage war against the aggressors successfully, and that was to MOBILIZE! That is, to rally all of our resources and wherewithal - scientific, manufacturing, manpower, materiel, and technological in the fastest and most efficient way possible to bring our nation's wartime production to a level necessary to win the war. So great was the mobilization effort that the US produced over 100,000 aircraft in one year alone!
The same actions must be applied today in meeting our energy crisis. Just recently Honda announced a new hydrogen fuel cell car with zero-emission with an energy-saving equivalent of 74 miles per gallon. However, because of the dearth of hydrogen fuel stations, there will be few of these cars available. Here is where our government could step in to meet the challenge of bringing this technology much sooner to its people. Once again, mobilize! Buy up all those defunct gas stations that have been blighting our neighborhoods for months or years. Appoint a director for distribution to facilitate the installation of these fuel stations and have some government automobile czar oversee the production and distribution of these vehicles. We could do in months what Roosevelt did to bring this country back on its feet in meeting our crisis here in the 21st century.
Charles F. Siford
Hellam Township
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