Today, the Senate Finance Committee released its version of the Health Care Reform package.  Now our national leaders have something to negotiate that should lead to a final bill.

Remember the Cap and Trade Legislation that cleared the House earlier this year?  Right, neither does anyone else.

It seems likely that the time between now and Thanksgiving will be taken up with getting health care done, but then we have to immediately move on to protecting the climate.

Luckily, the Obama lead government is taking steps in the right direction even while the legislative push is focused on health care.  The EPA issued new mileage standards for the auto industry today, and the incentives for energy efficiency in the government stimulus plan are being spent at a faster and faster clip.

Speaking of faster and faster, are we all ready to lobby and show our commitment to climate change legislation when our turn comes?  We better be, or the forces of the status quo (read big coal and big oil) will get the upper hand.  Their powder has been kept dry during the summer, but it is ready to burn at a moments notice.

It is going to take the people, business and government working together to make the changes necessary to achieve endependence, energy independence that ends dependence on polluting fuels.

On your mark, get set, ……….

Green jobs and energy independence in the rebounding economy.

The 44th President of the United States is taking office at a time when critical decisions about the future of our economy will have to be made rapidly and accurately.  There is little margin for error.

One of the things we heard during the campaign was a push for “Green” jobs.

President Obama can stimulate the economy by making the obvious connections between short term economic stimulus combined with energy conservation, mid term alternative energy subsidies and long term planning to make the country energy independent.

The economy is in dire straits due to the housing bubble pop.  Now that pop has triggered a crisis in the automotive industry.  So we have a built infrastructure (stationary) problem and a transportation (mobile) sector problem.

Our energy challenges break into two segments: stationary and mobile.

The overarching message of Obama’s green economy push could be:

“We should use our economic stimulus dollars to solve two problems at once, get the economy going again and move our country toward energy independence.

In the short term, we will use federal money to help our automobile companies build energy efficient cars.  We will also provide funding for the construction industry to improve the energy efficiency of  buildings, both residential and commercial, throughout the country. (As far as I can tell from Census Data, in 2006 Automotive Manufacturing accounted for .7% of GDP and Construction accounted for 4.8% of GDP).   This will keep automobile workers and auto dealership employees on the job and help to revive the incredibly important construction industry.

In the mid term, we will subsidize alternative energy technologies funded in part by a cap and trade greenhouse gas program.

On the strategic long term planning level, the government will establish a “Manhattan Project” to chart an energy independence road map that ends our dependence on non-renewable energy.

These moves will put American on a path to short term economic recovery while assuring our long term ability to maintain our standard of living sustainably.

We cannot do this without everyone pitching in to help.  As a nation, we must dedicate ourselves to making the sacrifices and tough choices that will allow us to pass a livable world on to future generations.”

Here is a great video by Shell Oil which shows the importance of charting a course for our energy future instead of following our current haphazard scheme.

http://www.shell.com/home/content/aboutshell/our_strategy/shell_global_scenarios/
scenarios_videos/video_2/

How about starting a war for “endependence” = energy independence that ends dependence on polluting fuels.