Weekend Blog 16 - Alternative Energy

The "Weekend Blog" is off the topics of business development, PR, sales, marketing and networking. It is my chance to write about random subjects.

Alternative Fuel Sources

The American pass-time of making every issue political (assigning every topic as "left" or "right") must come to an end with respect to the subject of the future of our energy supply. Our current consumption of fossil fuels will leave the planet drained of oil within the next 100 years. With one billion Chinese, and another billion people in other developing countries, beginning to raise their standard of living, more and more cars are hitting the streets around the world.

While it is true that North America and Western Europe blew through oil like drunken sailors the past fifty years, that will seem like nothing in the next decades.

It is time for the United States to do what it does best: Innovate and Invent. Over the past two centuries citizens of this country have discovered and created amazing things that have improved the human condition. While some would choose to vilify or focus only on the negative, the reality is that Americans have the ability to change the world for the better.

When John F. Kennedy challenged America to get to the moon in less than a decade....people were inspired to go where no man had gone before. Scientists and engineers found new ways to do things and were able to send a man into space and return him safely to earth.

We need a leader in Washington who can instill this same level of enthusiasm in the American people to break our dependency to foreign oil and invent new ways to power our cars and factories. This means that both political parties and all the special interests groups must stop trying to undermine their opponents and work together for a common goal. It may involve expanding our oil drilling in places like Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico in order to get ourselves through the next few years. And it will mean that everyone must look for ways to conserve energy.

In addition, the oil companies will have to revisit their mission statements and see themselves as "energy" companies (For real, not just for marketing purposes), and be the leaders in creating alternative energy solutions. If they do not they will be left behind like the railroads who did not view themselves as "transportation" companies, and thus did not embrace the airplane. Since we will be out of oil this century, then they had better adapt anyway, or they will be then next buggy whip.

Innovation and invention in the energy industry is the most important thing that America can do for our own future and the future of the planet. It is not yet too late, but the time is here now. No finger pointing at the other side of the political isle allowed (yes, that will be difficult for the likes of Tom Delay and Nancy Pelosi...who only exist because of their outspoken negative pontificating about the other party).

Can we do it? Yes, I believe we can.

Have A Great Weekend.

Thom Singer
www.thomsinger.com
thom@thomsinger.com