Independent

Every time I hear another call for energy independence, I look at my own surroundings and realize it will never happen.

I can do my part, and I have... and I have a lot more to do. But for every one of me, there are 75 others who really couldn't give a shit about the environment. Local or global.

The living arrangements we have developed mandate that we consume huge volumes of energy. Big houses big distances from everything. And I am one part of that. I live in the suburbs and own a big house...and although I knew this was excessive at the time, I did it anyway. I don't fault people, or myself, for having made that decision. It was a logical choice, given that we had overly cheap energy.

We have privatized the benefits of cheap energy while externalizing the costs. But these costs are no longer external...and they are coming due. Thesy are showing up as local ozone non-attainment, tribal disputes in Nigeria, wars in the Middle East that no one pays any mind to, possible global warming, and marathon runners who won't compete in Bejiing for fear of respiratory death.

But as I look around, those 75 others are doing absolutely nothing different. No changes, except perhaps not taking shopping trips every weekend to the Bay Area in the face of $3.50 gas. Just every other weekend. What we collectively want is to ignore the need to reduce oil consumption by 60% now, and then about 1% less each successive year, to achieve true energy independence.

It's not going to happen.