The good news is, the much vaunted Los Angeles traffic has significantly subsided, due largely to the $5 a gallon price of gasoline. Many people are taking public transportation and needless trips are being assiduously avoided. There is a glut out there of Hummers, pickups and SUVs. I hope this is the opening part of the nightmare of all those oil exporters.

We have been spoiled here in the US. Fuel has always been abundant and inexpensive. Why we have not come up with cheaper alternatives to oil is because of its widespread availability. So when oil hits $140 a barrel, the first thing George Bush does is not to call upon the American people to conserve, he makes a trip to Saudi Arabia and practically begs the Saudi rulers to increase production. The response he received was rather embarrassing even the so-called liberal media tried hard to downplay the affront to national pride.

We need to develop other energy alternatives. For a nation that was able to harness the awesome power of the atom, it is a wonder why we continue to depend on other countries for such a critical commodity as energy. Some countries use nuclear power to generate as much as 75% of their electricity. There are all these great spaces out there that could be used to utilize solar and wind energy. In Guymon, we have built quite a number of wind vanes in the last few years.

I was happy to see a wind farm close to Palm Springs, CA that was at least 500 times bigger than our modest plots.

Solar panels that are so much more efficient compared to models from 2 years ago are now available and are surely competitive next to the ridiculously high prices of oil. So instead of drilling for oil in the pristine Arctic reserves and possibly despoil the beauty of the area and since all the oil up there won’t cover for even a third of our needs anyway, and it will take at least 10 years to get that oil to our gas pumps, why don’t we apply the same national resolve to find other cleaner alternatives that are found in great supply. Energy-independence is fundamental.