The Three Truths of US Energy Policy

Having watched energy policy debates for decades now, there are certain patterns.  The first is that gas prices always spike right around the time that energy policy is being discussed.  So we all becoming unwilling lobbyist for the oil companies because our pain at the pump drives us to entertain options we would not otherwise consider (think offshore oil drilling).

Th second truism is that congression response will never be enough or just plain wrong.  In other words, congress will be spending hundred of millions of dollar when they should be spending hundreds of billions of dollars on renewables.  Or they will try to convince everyone that they are solving the problem by authorizing more drilling or opening more areas to drilling.  The simple truth is that we have far less reserves under our control than we use.  We can never escape that fact.

And the last truth is that the folks who can least afford it will be hurt the most by the impact of the first two truisms.

We have to break this cycle.