Al Qaeda in Washington D.C. - The GOP

Yesterday's wan attempt by our national Democratic Party congressional leadership to push through legislation that would have done a number of very sensible things in the realms of renewable energy and controlling criminal manipulation of oil pricing, was defeated by Republicans, including our own Senator Ted Stevens.

As the Alaska Democratic Party wrote in a press release yesterday:

Rising gas prices have made it difficult for Alaskan families to stretch their household budgets. In May 2001, the average retail price per gallon of gasoline in Alaska was $1.67. The average gas price per gallon is $4.18 as of May 19, 2008. When adjusted for inflation, this represents an increase of 107 percent. [ Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation; American Automobile Association.]

The Consumer-First Energy Act would have addressed some of the root causes of the record high gas prices. It would have rolled back tax breaks for oil companies while investing in renewable energy, created an Energy Independence Trust Fund to help consumers meet high energy costs, supporting clean energy technologies, and improving energy efficiency, stopped Wall Street speculation that is artificially driving up oil prices, prevented price gouging by oil producers and distributors, and allowed legal action in U.S. courts against OPEC for manipulating the price of oil.

The Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act was a tax relief package that would have included the Exxon Valdez provision. The legislation also included incentives for clean energy, college tuition tax credit, deductibility of state and local sales tax for states without income taxes, and research and development tax credit. Alaska ’s nearly 8,000 teachers would have saved $2 million under a provision that allowed teachers to deduct their own money spent on classroom supplies. In addition, it would have change the child tax credit to include an additional 2.9 million children.

Back in November, I wrote about ex-governor Wally Hickel's study of geothermal potential as an energy resource. The study was done in 1972. That was 36 years ago. Hickel's team's recommendations weren't heeded. No doubt the oil industry had a hand in keeping Hickel's ideas marginalized. Had the USA begun converting as many power plants around our country as feasible to geothermal designs back then, our country would now have trillions of dollars that would have stayed here, rather than leaving the country to buy unneeded oil. That money would have, in turn, been reinvested into our own economy, creating more trillions for our citizens.

But oil company shills - the Dan Fagans of their day - ridiculed sound ideas that threatened a dying paradigm then. They still do. It was, in my thinking then, unpatriotic for these people to recommend we ship our dollars overseas to corrupt countries, in order to slake our craving for so-called "cheap" oil energy. But now, with our entire national economy reeling at a precipice, to do what the GOP minority did in the U.S. Senate yesterday, borders on criminal, or at least criminally insane.

There are so many under-utilized technologies out there now to make internal combustion engines far more efficient, to gather and store electrical energy in increasingly more efficient ways, and to shape transportation needs in more efficient ways, that every time an action like yesterday's Senate vote happens, those who defeat progress help the terrorists.

The GOP IS Al Qaeda in DC. The GOP IS Al Qaeda in Juneau.