“There was never a good war or a bad peace.”  -Ben Franklin

War has always been good business to corporations and bad business to the poor soldier on the front lines.  Never has this been truer than on the newest type of war…the energy companies’ war on terrorism.

Although the war is being promoted to protect us from terrorists (so called ‘evildoers’), the truth is we really have ourselves to blame.

We’ve allowed the three real evildoers; politicians, energy companies and auto manufacturers, to promote their agenda.

They’ve allowed us to become one of the biggest users of foreign oil in the world.  America consumes nearly 25% of the world’s oil with only 3% coming from domestic reserves.

But not to worry, said the Bush administration, the answer is to destroy one of the most beautiful wildlife preserves in Alaska to drill for oil.  Any oil that could be found there, however, would last only a decade (if that) and would only supply 1% of America’s need for fossil fuels.   On average America uses 25% of the world’s fossil fuels, so obviously wasting the time and energy to get a decade of less for only 1% of what we need seems ridiculous (considering we still need to get 21% from foreign countries).

This is the administrations real war on terrorism, a war on terrorism designed by energy companies.

Energy Companies War Strategy #1: You bought the President, use him to push policy
To bolster the Bush administrations chances of drilling for oil there, they are pushing H.R. 4 through the House of Representatives and on to the Senate.  The bill encompasses many of the energy policies of Bush and Cheney (who, if you don’t remember, had close ties with the vast majority of the energy producers in America including the now defunct Enron Corporation).  The bill wants to increase domestic production of oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear resources…none of which are ‘renewable energy resources’.

Recently on the NPR News program (hosted by PBS) “NOW with Bill Moyers”, the host had on L. Hunter Lovins, the founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, to talk about H.R. 4 bill and renewable energy resources.  She said that the bill is useless and will never wean us from the dependency of foreign oil. 

She had a glimmer of hope by way of hydrogen.  All the major auto carmakers have hydrogen car programs but no serious backing from the Government.  If we were to go to hydrogen cars, we could plug our cars into a ‘grid’ when we’re not using them and MAKE MONEY and get rid of all fossil fuel power plants.  There are so many vehicles being used, according to Lovins, that if everyone used hydrogen cars and plugged them into the grid when not in use there would be an excess of energy.

Energy Companies War Strategy #2: Keep the war going

The war has been a boon for the energy cartel.  They are able to not only help their ‘elected’ President stay in office (after numerous blunders and the current recession) but also get to deceive Americans on the real issues.

Political talk-show host Bill Mahrer constantly talks about this issue.  The war may never had to be fought if we had pushed the energy cartel back and forced our policymakers to pursue renewable energy resources like wind, hydrogen and solar…all of which are actually becoming more appealing to everyone.

In San Francisco a bill was passed that infuriated the energy cartel.  The city is placing solar panels on many city buildings including the jail.  By doing this (in the very sunny California state) they can dramatically reduce their dependency on the energy grid and actually make money by selling excess energy they collect. 

Energy Companies War Strategy #3: Deprive Americans of their civil liberties

While this may not make much sense for the energy cartel to do, it actually makes sense.  If you can prevent Americans from voicing their opinions and to be heard by the politicians, you can get what you want.One such act is being done here in Nevada.  The nuclear branch of the energy cartel is pushing the Department of Energy to ship thousands of tons of high-level radioactive waste to “Yucca Mountain” for long-term storage.  Despite this the State, County and City Governments have filed numerous lawsuits to prevent this from happening.  Just one accident could make the booming Las Vegas a ghost town. 

Yet it’s all falling on deaf ears.  The DoE is under intense lobbying from the nuclear industry lobbyists and are winning out, especially with the energy cartels main man, “W”, in office.

So what does all this mean ?

We need to embrace alternative energy resources now.  Policy based on existing fossil fuels are fruitless and will only give Islamic extremists more reasons to attack our country and citizens.  Self-dependency is the only true way to have peace.