We need to
transition to renewable energy. Anyone
with a sense of stewardship should be able to see this. At some point we will exhaust our fossil
fuels. Using them until they are gone
and going with Oops, we need something else is the worst of management.
Likewise,
shutting down production and obstructing transport of fossil fuels or diverting
it to more expensive modes of transport is likewise the worst of management.
Change
management professionals know that when there is a forced change, there must be
a safe landing area. That landing area
must be in the target area for the change.
There can be no safe landing going back.
The problem
is that if the safe landing area is too far away or unreachable, chaos
ensues. No place is safe.
Let’s say we
need to transition from fossil fuels (mainly oil and gas) to other forms of
energy (solar, wind, nuclear, etc.). A
comfortable transition might take 50 years, and likely won’t happen within that
time frame because it’s unforced and doing nothing different is comfortable. Those 50 years will become 100 without some
outside force acting upon the energy production system.
A super-fast
transition would be 20 years, and such a short time frame (this is a short time
on a national and governmental scale) would come with recurring disruptions. The solution obviously is somewhere in
between.
So, we would
target 25 years and gauge success by most sources being converted in 35
years. Considering the inefficiency and
self-serving nature of government (ask ‘who profits’ by shutting down the
pipeline), 40 years is the most likely target date that we might reasonably
achieve without self-destruction.
What does
that mean in practical terms?
Build the
Keystone Pipeline. It will have 20-30
years of service life before the transition to other energy forms is complete
and will help us maintain energy independence.
Provide some
government incentives for renewable energy.
Solar and wind have been with us enough that they stand or fall on their
own. Their subsidies should become less
each year.
Reward the
innovators not the scammers with government money for energy production that
shows both promise and affordability. New energy sources that can transition to
something that will prevail in the marketplace is essential.
If we really
want to go green—and that wasn’t a bad thing until it was pushed to absurdity—then
let’s set aggressive—not impossible—targets and have a compliance range that
goes a little beyond the target. In government,
that 10 years.
So, let’s
target 2050 as a renewable energy source date and consider having 75% of our
energy coming from renewable sources by 2060 a victory.
We don’t
have to kill the nation to accomplish this.
The 2050-2060 decade as a safe landing area is doable and we can skip
much of the chaos being imposed by this most recent administration.
We can go
green and build the pipeline without dissonance. The surgeon doesn’t stop the heart to do a
kidney transplant so there will be less bleeding. A successful transplant in a dead patient is ridiculous.
A representative
government set upon the course of serving the nation and its people can make
this transition. A government set on
retaining power, profiting at the expense of the electorate, and living high on
the hog disconnected from the people they should represent, will continue to
play the shell game with manufactured crises so you forget what you sent them
to Washington to do in the first place.
We can get
better without destroying ourselves but we may have to cut out the cancer in our
government first.
Smart,
dedicated, and unselfish public servants can accomplish this transition. We should settle for nothing less.
