Pete Austin’s Blog

About six months ago (and long before the election outcome was certain) a friend of mine who is still in college was griping to me about a paper he had to write. The topic chosen by the professor was, “What does it mean to be an American?” I actually empathized with him because as soon as he told me the topic I laughed at the stupidity of the question. As I explained to him, it sounded as if the professor wanted to open a dialog about patriotism but just lacked the creativity to create a compelling question about it. I posed back to him, “I think a better question would have been, ‘Are you proud to be an American?’”

As I watched the results of Tuesday’s election roll in I thought back to that question and realized that I couldn’t remember a single time in the entire eight year tenure of George W. Bush (whom I never voted for) that I felt truly proud to be an American. It really struck me how sad it was that despite having all the advantages of being born and raised in this country, and all of the benefits I enjoy as a citizen, that I still was unable to feel proud of my country.

In the wake of Barack Obama’s resounding presidential victory, and for the very first time, I woke up this morning feeling truly proud to be an American. I finally feel as if the general populace has woken up from its ideological stupor and has suddenly seen the greater picture. We have elected an intelligent, educated, well-spoken, determined, and rational person to lead our country (Bush possesses none of those qualities). I remain hopeful that his ideas for the future will translate into a new era of prosperity in this country and that people will finally see that there is nothing wrong with having a president who is smarter than you are.

I’m not expecting President Obama to deliver miracles, but at least now I can actually hold my head high to the world.

Far and away the best photo gallery of the Obama election: HERE

I was watching CNN last night and they were covering the endorsement of Barrack Obama by Al Gore. The CNN anchor was posing the possibility of Obama choosing Gore as his VP to a panel of political pundits. This notion was unanimously panned by the panelists so then the CNN anchor pressed further and offered the possibility of a cabinet-level position for Gore, namely that of Energy Czar. The panelists dismissed that as well citing that Mr. Gore is more than content in his current endeavors and having already been VP would not settle for anything less than a presidential role. The idea of putting someone like Al Gore in a Energy Czar role got me thinking about broader energy policies of the next American administration.

A lot of people are really caught-up in the politics of the energy industry right now, driven almost exclusively by the price per gallon of gasoline. If you take a step back and look at the bigger picture the price of a gallon of gasoline is such a small component of the energy industry you wonder how it ever got to be such a big deal. The energy industry encompasses method of producing energy that we as a civilization know of. There’s renewables such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric and then there’s comsumables such as coal, oil, and nuclear. Now I’m not an environmentalist or a member of Greenpeace; I am however a capitalist – through and through. And I’m telling you that the new economic boom is coming in the form of renewable energy infrastructures.

If you think about any sovereign nations’ energy policy, there is a holy grail of sorts. Energy independence. Having a diversified energy policy that your citizens can both afford and feel secure in in times of crisis is great, but what if your larger economy suffers at the cost of it. The ideal energy-independent policy would be one that holds the above benefits but betters the economy by keeping the cycle of buyers and sellers within its own borders. If you want to see how other countries are achieving energy independence just look at Iceland and Brazil. Iceland in particular has developed a solution of energy production that makes our supposed “American Ingenuity” look like the retarded offspring of George Bush and Brittany Spears…wait a minute.

Energy independence isn’t about completely closing off a nation’s energy trade as most critics like to argue, it’s about producing 99.9% of the energy that the country needs both currently and in the future using your own natural resources – whether they are renewable or not. The bottom line is American politicians just don’t know how to commit to anything other than pandering to our own citizens incompetence and aggression to other nations. If a politician were to come along and run on a platform of change – I present the ultimate challenge. Commit to creating an energy-independent nation in the course of a single administration (8-years with reelection) using a hybrid energy policy of renewable and consumable energy. If America’s people and leaders could commit to a challenge like this image the benefits. Imagine the centuries of prosperity that could come of just 8 years’ commitment. Stop thinking about energy 15 gallons at a time. Take a step back and see the greater challenge.