Is Thomas Friedman just trying to sell books? Check out this Letterman interview and see that he is a man on a mission (runs about 10mins).

This man is, in our opinion, saying all the right things, and he is definitely passionate about changing the status quo.

If you’re not worried about environment, take a look at the other issues and see that there is much more to gain…and lose.

There’s so much I want to say about this video. Just watch it.

C.O.

Economically, personal energy independence just makes sense.  Whether it be wind, solar, gasification, other renewable sources, or a mix of few of these, there are some serious adavantages.  And while it will be tough for an individual to become fully independent, our furture may count on getting as close to that mark as we can.

Let’s imagine that you didn’t have a monthly power bill, what would you do with the extra money?  As energy prices keep rising they steal more and more of our discretionary income, which is income that doesn’t see its way back into the market to help bolster the economy.  And what about the other energy cost we have…how free would you feel emotionally and econmically if you didn’t have to stop at a gas station for your everyday fuel needs?  Converting to a renewable home power system cuts out the middleman, and you produce the energy you need when you need it.  In addition, converting to an electric car lets you use that energy for all of your basic fuel needs.  Those changes make a big dent in the outflow of your hard earned money and give you more to spend on the other important and sometimes non-important expendatures.

Keeping more money in the checking account should get just about everyone excited, but there’s also another consideration: the energy crisis.  There are energy resources in this country that are getting old and need to be decommissioned.  These power plants are going to have to be replaced, and it gets hard to keep up with power requirements when U.S. power demand is growing, plants are closing, and our economy is dragging its feet.  Disastrous things happen when we start to have energy shortages.  We need leadership and personal initiative.  We could take responsibility in this crisis and calm the stress on the power infrastructure by making power locally in the home.  If we don’t look at this problem as it is and leave it to the same people that have been dealing with it for decades, we are in for a rough ride.

One of the great side effects of working toward personal energy independence is that we cut down on our use of carbon based fuels.  Athough the debate rages on about the environment, there is no doubt that fossil fuels will someday run out.  We need to prepare for that right now with renewables.  If indeed we are doing damage to our surroundings, then renewables offer a responsible way to power us into the future.

All of these great things and it seems like we’re crawling to implementation.  Unfortunately, many of the renewable technologies aren’t ready for primetime, and their infant state makes them expensive (we still think the econmics work in their favor).  On the bright side Americans have shown the will in past times to push through difficulties and do what is right for the good of the many.  Call us hopeful, but we believe it can be done.  It is just going to take an attitude that doens’t accept business as usual.  So, whether it’s wind, solar, or a hybrid, let’s do the hard stuff now so that we can survive the future.

Have you seen the Pickens’ Plan video? If you haven’t, get over to the site and watch it now (it’s about five mins long). You can see the video here. You’ll find that the plan is ambitious and certainly meant for purpose of someone making a profit, but there are some real gems in there. Now, I don’t know if the directions that T. Boone wants to take us in are totally correct, but at least they get the discussion going. The one issue I’d like to focus on is the outflow of American money that goes toward bringing foreign oil to our shores. He estimates that the dollar figure on our oil imports, 70% of what we use, is 700 billion annually. Question: Is our economy in trouble right now? I don’t know what feelings you’ve been having lately, but frankly I’m a little scared about where we are going. There are some experts that even say we could be headed for a depression–let’s hope they are wrong. The point I’m trying to make is that we would be in a better situation, on the order of billions of dollars, if we could get that money to stay here at home. Some exports are fine, but c’mon, not to the point where it cripples us financially. We’ve got to pull together to quit this oil addiction and get our economy back on track. How do we do that? There are many different ways that we’ll be talking about, yet first we all have to agree that investing in ourselves is the key. That money needs to go back into our economy.