Summer's over.

Get back to work. The health care..uhm..."debate"?...is overshadowing energy policy. Yes, that sucks, and we have to think about ways to work with that fact. But guess what, that's exactly why our best buddies are cheering Woo-Hoo!

Screw that. Years of private capital funded energy-efficiency R&D would go down the drain if we just give up. There has been a huge amount of money spent over the last few years by hugely successful publicly traded companies on energy efficiency, and that's not just one or two companies no one has heard of, these are big-name blue chip companies who have done their homework during the unpredicatbly crazy Bush years looking forward to a day when they might have to conserve a little. That knowledge is now just waiting to be used. But it will all go to waste if energy legislation doesn't pass the Senate. Yes, some sectors might not be able to adjust quickly and they should be helped finanacially in other ways. But the vast majority of companies are ready to go right now, and the only thing holding them back is waiting for the good-ole government dole. And they'll continue to wait because none of them wants to take the first step if they know that they can wait a few more months and then get rewarded for it.

Big Gub'mnt isn't imposing their will for something that's completely meaningless, either, if I have to remind anyone. Eh-hem, that AGW thing still kinda sucks. And thanks but no thanks, pointing planes at Manhattan is sick. We. Don't. Need. To. Go. There. Why? Because cap-and-trade is simply a way to allow American-made energy efficiency solutions to be tried in the broader marketplace. They'll ask rhetorically 'why those aren't being used right now if those solutions are so great?' It's all because the private sector is waiting for government direction on how we'll solve this. The companies know they'll have to act sooner or later anyway.

Shall we at least try to do this now while we as a country still can make these solutions work? Yes, we can.