The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.

That is the official name of the familiar roads we know as I-10, I-95, I-5, etc.

The Intestate part is obvious, but why “defense highways”?

The story boils down to the vision and efforts of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In 1919, Lieutenant Colonel Eisenhower was part of an army convoy that crossed the country from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco.  The 81 vehicles took 62 days to cross the country at an average speed of 6 miles per hour.

After his stint as Supreme Allied Commander in WWII, and having seen the Autobahns in Germany, Eisenhower became convinced that it was imperative for the United States to build a high speed highway system to move materiel and troops in time of war.

The Interstate Highway System had other major benefits, changing the social and commercial fabric of the country.  America became a mobile culture.

How was the $129 Billion highway system paid for?  Through gasoline taxes.  At the time it was proposed, some of the critics called it a “socialistic scheme to transfer the cost of providing deluxe highways from those most benefited to the already heavily burdened landowner.”

Sound familiar?  Are there many around today who still bemoan the interstates as a socialistic scheme?

Now the parallel with the proposed alternative energy economic stimulus strategy being contemplated by the incoming Obama administration.

Endependence thinks a great case can be made to promote spending on alternative energy infrastructure as a matter of national defense.  We need to insulate ourselves from the spikes in the cost of fossil fuel energy and their toxic effects on the environment.  America should become the world leader in harvesting and using renewable energy.

We can pay for it with a gasoline tax, or a carbon tax.

A suggestion for a name for this move toward energy independence that ends dependence on polluting fuels:

The Barack Obama Interstate Alternative Energy Defense Network.

Here is the link to an article about the Interstate Highway system:

http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2006/summer/interstates.html

The cheapest and dirtiest source of energy is coal.

That cheap energy is old sunlight in the form of decayed plants compressed over millions of years (a so called fossil fuel, coal).

The future cheap energy is eight minute old sunlight.  Estimates are that enough solar energy strikes the earth every day to provide the power the entire planet uses in a year.

Here is a link to the SOHO Satellite which monitors the sun.

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/gallery/bestofsoho.html

Warning: this solar observation can become very addicting.

The technology to capture sunlight and convert it to electricity already exists.  We have solar photovoltaics, like we install on the roofs of buildings, and CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) like utility companies are building.

Here are videos about both of these technologies:

http://endependence.info/research/videos-c-2-v-5.html

http://endependence.info/research/videos-c-2-v-108.html

As the scientist from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory says in the video about CSP, the hope is that America will invest in solar energy the way that Spain and other European countries are.

If a country were looking for a way to invest in economic security and energy security while stimulating a sagging economy, there is no better use of our money than to move from the cheap old sunlight (coal) to the cheap (once the collectors are installed, it is close to free) new sunlight.