what i wish i were hearing about energy costs

just home from a trip to boston. drove up, flew back. gas prices are painfully high, though i suppose we'll think soon enough that $4.00/gallon doesn't sound so bad.

in theory, i understand that we need these high prices and this pain to motivate a less destructive way of life. what i hate is that, in yet another way, the burden falls hardest on those who can least bear it, while exxon made $40 billion profit from our pain last year, is on track again so far this year, and is now selling off its gas stations because there's not enough profit there.

here are some things i'd like to hear from our leadership:

• this crisis was inevitable and if we'd had good leadership, we'd have done something to prepare, but we didn't.
• there is nothing (sane) we can do to get our old gas prices and lifestyle back. those days are gone.
  
• we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, for reasons relating to national security.
• we need to reduce our dependence on all oil, for reasons relating to our planet.
• this will require some serious changes.
• we need to help the folks on the bottom, especially, for both economic and compassionate reasons. the price of gas is awfully close to minimum wage now.
  
• we need better local public transportation options. now would be good. i've tried using the bus system in asheville for getting around, and it's generally complicated and unnecessarily inefficient. boston, on the other hand, and even tiny ithaca . . .
  
• we need better distance travel options. trains are a great way to travel, but from asheville, i have to come/go through greenville, sc in the middle of the night, and unless i'm going to a city with good public transportation options, i'm stuck once i get there. (a nod to my friend chris ahrens who died last year, but to the very end, argued for passenger rail in our area)
• both local and distance public transportation will have to be subsidized or provided by governments, for the good of all of us, and we can't wait until the demand is high enough to make it profitable. we need investment in it first, so that it works, so that it can be understood as a workable option, so that demand can go up enough to support it.
  
• we need natural light and air in our homes and workplaces, so we're not spending so much on the artificial kind. we need better building design.
  
• for what we now call "the cooling season," we need well-placed trees to protect our homes from direct sunlight. trees that lose their leaves in the winter so the sun warms us in "the heating season." or if we have direct sunlight, what about solar options or green roofs?
• we need heating systems that work room by room. if the baby's room needs to be warmer, great, but we shouldn't have to heat the living room and kitchen all night.
• we need to cut down on how far things are shipped across the country, which means learning how to buy local -- not as a rigid rule, but as a factor to consider. i already pay more for organic, partly because i like supporting organic farmers. i willingly pay more to shop at town hardware, because i like supporting local business. i can start paying better attention to the local angle.
  

i recently heard mike farrell quote john o'donohue, saying that the duty of privilege is absolute integrity.

we who are privileged need to make choices others can't make. we all need to do what we can to create the world we want.

i'm no energy expert. these things won't solve everything. i just want us to think about all this, have a real conversation and go in a sane direction. for a change.