Laws and Sausages

I've followed with earnest the US sentate two days ago blocking debate of the same energy tax credits that helped me to build my solar system. They are set to expire at the end of this year. Their expiration would mean, for someone building my PV system, an immediate 17% hike in price. I love how the senate went about this...to delay the debate, they had a clerk read the entire 700+ page 'Energy Independence and Tax Relief of 2008' bill on the floor.

I don't know how laws and sausages are made; I obey them and I eat them, and that's about all I want to know. I really doubt that Congress, really, would allow these credits to expire. There will almost certainly be some action taken before the end of the year to keep them going.

The larger issue is that we do not maintain a long term view on anything in this nation. Not urban layout, formal tree plantings, building design, the environment, exponential growth (even 1% a year is exponential), and most obviously, energy. How can the renewable energy crowd possibly invest in the face of soon-to-expire credits, then later-to-expire credits, then expired credits, then...in fact, how can anyone plan anything in energy for a long term -- a nuke plant, drilling rigs, hydrogen production, in the face of ever changing policies?

So assume the credits expire...not only will there be a lot less demand for wind turbines and PV panels, there's a growing domestic labor market that will also be impacted, uncertainty of manufacturers to commit to expansion plans, and of course, we'll be no futher along toward that modern Valhalla of energy INDEPENDENCE...ha! Like we were really ever going to get there anyway.

Instead of a continuation of renewable energy credits, fuck it, let them expire, and let's just drill more. Fuck it, we say! To cure our addiction to oil, just feed us more domestic oil! We know we've got trillions of barrels of the stuff right underneath us.