Towards a Green Future

Daily we are bombarded by news stories bemoaning one or both of the following:

1. We are dependent on foreign oil to meet our energy needs.

2. We need to drill for more oil here in the US to satisfy our thirst for oil and in the process, lower energy prices.

#1 is true.

But, is #2 true? Conventional wisdom says yes, and then proceeds to recommend drilling in ANWR, or off the coast of Florida, or anywhere where we might be able to extract more of the heroin.....um, I mean "oil" we are dependent on.

What if #2 was not true?

What journalists fail to report is that the US is a huge oil exporter. Yes. You read that right. The US exports on average 300k to 1 million barrels of domestically produced oil every single day. Source here

Now, we have a choice. We can either start drilling more wells, and environmental consequences be damned. Or, we can start intelligently reallocating the production of oil we are already producing, from existing oil fields.

Here is my proposal, which I will pursue if and when I am elected to Congress or to the Presidency:

The Oil and Democracy Accountability Act

Purpose: To ease domestic energy prices, insure a steady supply of oil, and safeguard that our petro-dollars only go to oil exporting nations that are democracies.

1. Preferred oil Sources: The US will only purchase oil from non-OPEC nations of a democratic nature. (Democracy will be defined either in the legislation, or by the Congressional Research Service, or by some other body) Current preferred nations might include: Canada (already our biggest source of imports), the UK, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Mexico. Other nations that might be included either now, or in the future when they are deemed sufficiently democratic: Russia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Columbia, Indonesia

2. Intelligent reallocation of domestic oil production:  All oil extracted within the US will be reserved for domestic use and consumption, and shall not be exported. (See how we just increased our supply of oil by 300k to 1 millions barrels per day without drilling a single new well?)

3. Import rules may be overridden by (some sort of vote in congress, and/or temporarily by Presidential decree in cases of emergency or during severe disruption of domestic production)
 
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Now, there are several things this bill does NOT do, and it is useful to list them:

It does not reduce our dependence on oil.
It does not reduce the impact on global warming that our oil addiction has.

However, I wanted to put this idea out there as a tool to help break the drill/don't drill argument deadlock by introducing some unorthodox thinking that is sorely lacking in our energy policy these days.

Hello all - as one of Iowa's delegate's to the Green Party of the US, I was privileged to attend the Green Party annual meeting in beautiful Tucson, AZ! Below are some photo images of that trip, and the sights of the meeting.

Our luxurious accomodations at the University of AZ



The grounds of the Univ of AZ campus:



The meeting room at the Historic Y in Tucson:



The courtyard at the Y, used for meals and delegates informal conversations:



GPUS Secretary and IAGP Secretary Holly Hart giving a report (sorry for the bad lighting-my poor camera skills!):



Along with hybrid cars parked outside, alternative transportation abounded *inside* the convention hall:



A peace vigil of Greens, sponsored by local activist group Women In Black (100 or so were there - very positive reaction from passers by!):



Yours truly helping with a peace flag:



Tucson was actually cooler and rainier than Des Moines during the convention:



Entertainment was provided by George Shrub, the singing CIA agent:



Yours truly giving the Iowa GP update to the meeting:



Who does the majority of the hard work at the national Green Party office in Washington DC? Its Emily Citkowski and Brent McMillan!