Money for nothing …

Another aspect to the energy situation that has received attention from Congress is the granting of tax incentives to the oil companies, for such things as exploration.

Congress has indicated they’d like to do something different with that money … besides giving to mega-corporations that do nothing once they receive it.

One of the possibilities Congress has listed is research into alternative fuels.

A trucker who called us recently pointed out that many of those same oil companies do some of that research. Why, he asked, should we stop them from taking money out of our right pocket and then simply let them steal the same money from our left pocket?

Here’s a thought: How about we give some of that research money to our universities, and then make the results of that work public domain?

How many times have we heard about energy-saving discoveries by major corporations that were shelved? Remember what happened to all of the GM electric cars in California once the leases were up – the company crushed them. Although later, a GM official said they were “recycled” instead of simply crushed.

Although we’re no longer convinced that alternative fuels like biodiesel and ethanol are where we’re headed as a nation, the development of those industries is pretty instructive.

Small companies took government subsidies and used them to make those fuels viable, not mega-corporations. Small companies promoted them, developed them, pursued them. The big guys were Johnny-comes-latelys.

We clearly have to pursue some kind of alternative fuel. However, simply putting that task in the hands of the same companies that allowed the current crisis to occur makes no sense whatsoever.