On Becoming Energy Independent

A wise woman told me that all mountains can be moved – it just takes one rock at a time. In many ways this is a variation on a theme that we all know very well. We’ve heard it retold in many stories, including the hare and the tortoise. We know it deep inside, but last year we ignored this lesson to a large degree.

When many of us signed onto the Pickens Plan, we thought we were joining a revolution. We were fed up with big companies, big banks and big government doing nothing about the oil crisis. Some were tired of waiting for “fat cats” to invest in smarter solutions that could clean up the environment and make a fortune at the same time. We wanted to start building projects right away – just like T. Boone did with the wind farm in Texas.

Well, after a year on the Pickens Plan it hasn’t happened. We haven’t built alternative energy projects across the country. We haven’t started the Manhattan project that many of us wanted. We haven’t pooled our knowledge and resources to research and invest in worthy alternative energy companies. We haven’t figured out how to support American-drilled natural gas as a multi-million person force. But we have laid the foundation to accomplish those goals in the future.

Before the Pickens Plan, we grumbled to ourselves and our friends that Congress was asleep at the switch; that the government cared more about big oil that the rest of us; and that someone needed to do something about rising oil prices. The Pickens Plan has helped us to articulate what the problems are, where the impacts are felt and how we will benefit by fixing them. Together, we have changed the discussion in Washington and gotten politicians to take notice. For once, they are writing laws that might positively help our efforts to get off of imported oil. Without your efforts over this past year, who knows what they would have been doing.

Take heart. We are moving those stones. The mountain before us is getting smaller. Don’t worry that it’s taking multiple years – that we are in an evolution instead of a revolution. Take care of your families and come out to support our efforts every now an then, when called upon. Diligence and methodical action are the way to become energy independent. I know that now, and I am happy to report that I see the change coming. Stick with it, because we know what the alternative would be.

Tags: anniversary, becoming, energy, independent, pickens, plan

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Comment by Luane Todd on July 13, 2009 at 2:26pm: Well said, friend.

Taking care of your family is a start...some of us have more immediate family than others so our priorities lean there first...as they should.

I would add to your thoughts my own idea of what we must do to get to the end we want...a truly homegrown, homerun life which not only covers the energy we need but all the other really important things...food, water, air...you know; the absolute necessities of life! And they are interconnected. Changing the way we produce and distribute food reduces the need for a substantial amount of fossil fuel in its many forms...and can help make the air we breath better and the water we drink better. Finding ways to generate the energy we want closer to home reduces the amount of energy we have to produce since we don't lose as much in moving it around. Lots of small scale solutions put more people to work and reduce security risks in all the above areas. Disentangling ourselves from our various military actions would reduce our energy demands by about 50%!

We must all continue to look at promising alternatives for the above needs and that means we have to take the time to dig them out of the maze of information. This is time consuming but necessary since we have so little experience with alternative approaches. There is really no way to streamline this process and no one can or should reduce the information to sound bite size. Too much important detail is lost this way and the potential for being misled increases as the information is condensed. I think we need to recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all fix but the concept of making solutions for the area we live in is a mindset that will work everywhere.
We will have to do it ourselves because we are more interested in our own needs than anyone else will ever be.

This site can and I think should be a place to put possible solutions out and get feedback that will speed up the learning curve.

Keep us informed of the changes you see and hopefully the rest of us will do the same.

One alternative project I followed this year was the geothermal plant that came online earlier this spring to supply electricity to the city of Pomona, CA. It was an astoundingly swift deal...approximately a year from inception to on-line. I like that!

Self reliance will be the norm, probably sooner than we think, once the ball starts rolling and the first implementers show the fraidy cats it can be done.,

Comment by allen bauman on July 12, 2009 at 4:09pm: Hi Clynton,
Great blog. We need words of inspiration from everyone from time to time because this is for the long haul. Americans get criticized for looking for the "quick fix" for every problem. And if we don't have a solution immediately we get frustrated and move on to the next problem. This is a problem that took decades to create and will take decades to fix. Many great ideas have been expressed on this site and Boone has shown leadership and the best plan around. We need to keep the faith, every one of us. So when the mood of the ARMY seems down write some inspirational words to lift our spirits. I will continue to do the same. And I hope others will take the baton from time to time. Let's keep on building, one stone at a time---allen---THE GREEN WARRIOR.