Wake up and smell the sustainability

[a.sommer@mail.utexas.edu]

In response to Sarah's comment on federal investment in alternative fuels:

I whole-heartedly agree with you.  It is pretty clear that the only thing 
holding us back from developing sustainable energy alternatives is the huge 
economic inertia of the oil industry.  It would be impractical to demand that 
oil production stop in the next decade or even the next three decades; but 
this should not stop us from investing large amounts of federal funds in 
research and development of alternative energy technologies TODAY.  The first 
step in this journey is adopting serious emission reduction standards so we 
can make our way towards a more sustainable future.

Solar power is claimed to be the number one alternative energy when 
considering factors such as investment, jobs and sustainability.  One of the 
distinctions of solar energy as compared to other sustainable alternatives is 
the energy “payback” solar provides, which makes it especially appealing to 
those concerned with profit.  Once solar facilites are established, there is 
virtually no upkeep beyond everyday maintenance.  Furthermore, there is no 
production or refinement necessary, and it is accessable to anyone, anywhere, 
with proper funds.  And with increased investment, solar power could one day 
be the cheapest means of energy production ever known. 

Solar power is an INEXHAUSTABLE resource.  We can have times without wind, we 
can have water shortages and fuel cell inefficiency, and we will soon have 
days without oil, but we will never have a week without sunlight.  Solar 
technologies are designed to harnass energy in a way that fuels future energy 
needs with today's light, establishing an energy supply that is unthreatened 
by even the worst economy.

Even if we stopped drilling oil today, the effects of fossil fuel emissions 
would linger for hundreds of years.  We have already created irreversible 
damage to the earth's ecosystems and will do much worse damage if we don't 
start to step away from fossil fuel production.

Our reliance on fossil fuels to keep our lives going has become debilitating 
and has for many years been a source of environmental destruction and 
hazardous pollution.  By continuing to plunder the earth of its oil, natural 
gas and coal, we only render ourselves closer to an energy crisis.  

The efforts that have been made to embrace sustainable energies have been 
largely PR stunts.  Both Shell and BP, although the leaders in sustainable 
investment, are far from where we need to be.  

It is clear that if the United States were to gradually develop an industry 
that thrives on sustainable technologies, we would eliminate dependency on 
foreign oil and thereby disentangle ourselves from the messy web of puppet 
governments and anti-american sentiment that is caused by US meddling abroad 
for energy needs.

An energy economy that bases itself on an inexhaustible resource is an energy 
economy that always has demand and always has room for improvement and 
growth.  The current energy economy is stagnating in a desperate scramble for 
a dangerous and dirty resource that we soon will not have.

-Amy Sommer