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 enemy in the War for Endependence (energy independence that ends dependence on polluting fuels) is aggressively prosecuting the war.

The War for Endependence is a war against “cheap energy“.  Fossil fuels have been cheap energy for the last 150 years or so, and now with the short term dip in oil prices, they are even cheaper.

In July 2008, oil was $147.00 per barrel, and now in November it is about $50.00 per barrel.  Gasoline that was over $4.00 per gallon is less than $2.00 per gallon.  What seemed like a no brainer in July, driving fuel efficient vehicles, is again a quandary less than five months later.

The truth is that cheap energy is only cheap if we don’t count what the economists call “externalities”, things like greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants.

Here is a video about the greenhouse gas externalities by Sir David Attenborough.

http://endependence.info/research/videos-c-13-v-81.html

With a world wide economic downturn and a drop in fossil fuel prices, how easy it is for people, businesses and governments to get lulled into complacency.

George Washington and the Continental Army did not surrender or return to their farms when they lost early battles in the War for Independence. (more…)