Energy Policy

Side note: Between the economic news, spending too  much time on The Oil Drum, and listening to David Copperfield on audiobook as I walk home from work each night, things have gotten a bit gloomy.  If you have any suggested books, movies, or websites that are more cheerful let me know (or if Copperfield's situation improves as I get in to the book, let me know -- just don't give me too much data to spoil the story)

If you are tired of the "Drill, Baby, Drill" approach to energy policy that has been offered up recently, I want to pass on two alternative viewpoints.

The first is also highly political.  Just as "Drill, Baby, Drill" originated from the Republican convention this year, Montana governor, Brian Schweitzer, engaged the Democratic convention this year.  YouTube has the entire speech, if you would like to hear it (as it is the entire speech it is highly political, so viewer be warned).  Notice that he doesn't call for us to stop drilling completely -- they have increased the amount of energy extraction in Montana.  (and yes, I hate his use of the term energy independence)

Those looking for something less political might want to turn to the good folks at Google.  Yes, the company that helped us find our way through the Internet now has their own energy plan for the US.

I am glad I don't have to write the energy policy for the US.  But I know that we need one.  We waited too long to deal with Wall St.  We can't afford to wait too late to deal with this issue.

Trust Busting

The public trust has been busted by companies labeled "too large to fail".

Maybe it is time to adjust our antitrust laws. (I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, so this might not actually fall under antitrust laws, although I suspect they do). I suggest that we create rules to create any one company from becoming "too large to fail." Once a company reaches that size it must break up into smaller companies. If the situation changes, the companies could merge back together.

I realize this is highly reactive, it does not deal with whatever the next problem on Wall Street will be. And as with many well intentioned laws it may cause unintended harm to some organizations (I would hope not as bad as SOX). But even with that, I think it is worth considering.

What do you think?

-- Andy

Dear DNC

(In case the Democratic National Committee is reading my blog, although I suggest the RNC also pay attention)

You have four years to plan out the next convention.  Please take a look at the schedule for the Olympics before setting the dates for your convention. 

After two weeks of stating up later than I generally would, staying up for the addresses of the convention is more of a challenge than I would like.  At least one week in between would be nice.

Thanks

-- Andy