A Siegel

Barack Obama has fostered one of the most impressive political machines, if not social movements, in American history. Will this movement turn toward another form of national service? Will Obama-Biden campaign machine turn to, for example, fostering energy efficient practices throughout American society?

T. Boone Pickens is making a name for himself, spending $10s of millions to sell Americans on the false illusion that he is offering a solution to our energy challenge which, by the way, will make him $billions. He is, less visible to many, spending $10s of millions to create and try to pass California’s Proposition 10 which would set back sensible energy policies while earning T Boone $billions.

John McCain is soon to enter history when it comes to Presidential politics. One part of his obituary will be his flip-flopping truthiness, with the Straight-Talk Express split into pieces to go multiple directions at the same time. Energy and Global Energy are arenas of some of the greatest and most blatant truthiness.

It seems ordained, almost chiseled in the stone blown up to mine it, that coal will be core to America’s energy picture essentially forever. To be perfectly clear, anyone who states that “we can’t go to a no-coal future” is not telling the truth. That is, they are not telling the truth about the technical potential but might be accurate about the political potential in the face of $billions being spent by the coal industry and their front organizations. In fact, it is not hard to map out a path toward eliminating coal …

General Motors is attempting to brand itself as the company of the automotive future with the plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) Chevy Volt. GM’s lead executive on this, Bob Lutz, has repeatedly stated his global warming denier beliefs while belittling the car in multiple ways. Message control?

With Todd Palin, with Sarah Palin, the question must be asked:

How can someone who could possibly be in line to become President of the United States be associated with a group that advocates secession from the United States?

Who should be speaking out strongly on Global Warming’s impacts? On the relationship of Global Warming to mounting storm and other threats to the nation? Who should lead the discussion about how federal flood policy has increased vulnerability to storms? Who should undertake the challenge of communicating how storms (worsened by Global Warming’s impact) threaten offshore energy infrastructure? If you answered “environmentalists”, Fred Krupp of Environmental Defense would say that you’re wrong. Guess what Fred … you’re wrong. And recklessly so.

With The Pickens’ Plan, T. Boone Pickens speaks to the need to end America’s oil addiction, to move off oil. With The Pickens’ Problem, T Boone Pickens speaks to continuing the status quo, to drilling the hole deeper when it comes to oil addiction. Unless the second is resolved, it is hard to take the first seriously.

The Pickens’ Problem is undermining the chances that The Pickens’ Plan will ever see fruition.

Gasoline prices at the pump have gone up by over $2.50 since before the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom to today. A question asked: How much of that price increase is a premium due to the Iraq War and other Middle East tension? A question asked … Answered?

Legendary conservative oilman T. Boone Pickens says oil is a dead end!

And, somewhat like another oddball Texan, Ross Perot, Pickens is investing a substantial sum to convince America of the challenge … and a proposed solution path.

Let’s take a look at some strengths and weaknesses of PickensPlan.