There has been a lot of debate lately over several proposed bills in Congress.  These bills, known as “Cash for Clunkers” aim to stimulate new car sales while retiring older vehicles.  The basic idea behind these bills sounds good, get older cars off the road and replace them with more fuel efficient vehicles.

This seems logical and makes sense on the surface, but let’s dig deeper.  First, I have been arguing for fewer cars on the roads.  This plan will not reduce traffic in any way and will encourage more car sales instead of increased alternative transportation.

Second, it rewards drivers of gas guzzlers.  This does not offer anything to the drivers who have already made the right decision and bought a more fuel efficient car.  So everyone that already cares about the planet, you’re out of luck.

Third, what about the waste from junking all of these “clunkers”?  They will try to set up a program to strip and salvage many of the parts from these retired vehicles, but it still seems like this will create a large amount of waste.

Fourth, more fuel efficient cars will encourage more driving.  So, many drivers that will now be “saving” gas will have even less incentive to reduce the miles they travel.

Fifth, there is a stipulation to buy American to qualify for the cash.  Does this violate free trade agreements?  I’m sure foreign auto makers will be angry and potentially retaliate by not importing American goods.

Sixth, this seems to benefit the auto makers more than the public.  Is this just another way for the government to give aid to the failing auto industry?

We desperately need to move away from our current car model and reduce traffic, not buy more cars while building additional roads.  That’s what we have been doing for the last 50 years and look where it has gotten us.

To me, this is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titantic.  The ship is still sinking and we need to make much bigger changes than just trading in one car for another.

photo credit: mtneer_man

Earth Day was started almost 40 years ago as a wake up call to our environmental problems.  There is an interesting story on Newsweek entitled “Every Day is Earth Day?” that argues it is time to give up the one-day-a-year celebration:

The first Earth Day was like the sounding of a bullhorn for the people to unite and get moving, which worked. But this year, 39 years later, the original intent has long eroded. The one-day demonstration that started a movement lost most of its luster decades ago. Yet we still have it—and that has alarming implications for our environmental progress. What was originally intended as a sounding alarm has been reproduced each year in the exact same way. The problem is, it’s hard to be motivated by a screeching alarm when you’ve been hitting the snooze button for the last four decades.

The last line of this quote makes me crazy; we’ve been hitting the snooze button since 1970!  When will we wake up to the reality that we can not continue to consume the earth resources like we are at an all you can eat buffet? 

I agree that people need to make this a priority every day, not just a once a year celebration.  We also observed Earth Hour last month to increase awareness of our energy consumption.  One day, one hour is just not enough.  We all need to do our part each and every day before it is too late.

photo credit: MissFancyPants

One of the best bands from the 80’s is Dramarama.  I don’t think they ever made it big nationally, but they had a huge radio hit with “Anything, Anything” here on the East Coast.   This song was pure energy and is still one of my favorite songs of all time.

This week I would like to feature another song by Dramarama called “What Are We Gonna Do?”.  Please excuse the mistake in the opening line, we know Earth Day is April 22nd, but I guess they had the date wrong when they recorded it.  Seems kind of funny now to make such an obvious mistake when we have instant access to the internet.  Back then, song writers just wrote lyrics and I guess nobody took the time to actually check the date.

Anyway, I found this video on YouTube that uses the song with some wonderful images of our beautiful planet.  There are also 50 inspirational messages to help encourage all of us to live better and take action.  I hope you find motivation in one or more or the messages while enjoying the music.

It’s April 21st and everybody knows today is Earth Day
Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday to whoever’s being born
And now I’m trying hard to think of something
meaningful and worthy, kind of earthy
to make everybody ask themselves just

What are we doing here?
and what are we doing to her?

I don’t know
What are we gonna do?
What are we gonna do?
What are we gonna do?

Fast Company has an interesting story in their April issue entitled “10 Ways To Jump-Start the Auto Business”.  The on-line version has been expanded to 25 ways, so I guess there are a lot of opinions out there for our auto industry.  This is a thought provoking article that highlights many of the current problems and offers some potential solutions.

Some of the issues they address include:

• Higher gas tax
• Car design
• Advertising
• Social networks
• Alternative fuels
• Monorail technology
• Hybrid vehicles
• Buy American
• Sell your car

All of these ideas to get the auto business moving again are well intentioned and very valid if you agree with the premise of the article.  My problem is that I think the last thing we need is more cars.  We already have plenty of cars, we just need to make more efficient use of the existing “fleet”.

So instead of trying to improve a broken system, I believe we should go in a new direction.  We have to explore a broad strategy to get people out of their cars.  Increased ride share, car share, mass transit, biking and walking are the future.

photo credit: vieux bandit

I missed posting this week’s song over the weekend, so I am putting one up tonight.  My blogging during the whole month of March was seriously lacking.  I have been swamped with work and struggling to find the time to write here.  It is not for lack of inspiration, just lack of energy right now, which seems kind of ironic.  Anyway, I will try to do a better job this month and catch up on the backlog of posts that I have accumulated.

My good friend Scott runs a live music venue in Asbury Park called The Saint.  So last night he booked a band from Ireland, Guggenheim Grotto.  I have heard a few of their songs on the radio, watched a couple of videos on YouTube and like their sound.  Well they greatly exceeded my expectations with a brilliant live performance.

You see, I typically work on this blog at night, once my kids go to sleep.  It can take me a few hours to catch up on my news feeds and find a story that I want to write about.  Next thing I know it is after one in the morning and I need to sleep or I will never get up in the morning.  So the line in the chorus of this song, “I just can’t seem to get out of bed anymore”, seems very appropriate.

Well, I hope you enjoy this video by my favorite new band.  I picked up their cd at the show last night and it has been on heavy rotation all day.  Thanks again Scott for bringing great original music to the Jersey shore.

she used to say about love,
that it should come from above
and it should come from below
she used to say my love
wear the lips of a saint
and the hips of a whore
and when we’d walk along the street she’d say
if it rains now, I hope to God it pours
and with her beautiful ideas,
she’d cut me in half, clean this broad sword.

and now I~
I just cant seem to get out of bed anymore..
yeah and now my~
my heart hangs worn and weak like an old wire door
and now I~
I just cant seem to get out of bed anymore~

I saw this story on The Oil Drum last week and found it very disturbing.  The story is entitled “The 88,000,000,000 barrel debt”.  They use some very simple graphs to illustrate this powerful message.  I highly recommend clicking on this link so you can see the graphs.

The first graph shows how US Energy Production has been almost constant for the past 30 years.  The second graph illustrates how our Energy Consumption has grown over that same period of time.  In the third and final graph, they show the ever rising debt.

So while the US Oil Production has declined over the years, we have compensated by producing more coal and natural gas.  Even with these changes, we have still consumed well beyond our capacity.  After studying the numbers, I put together this chart:

Do you see a shocking pattern in these numbers?  While it took us 12 years to accumulate a debt of 22 billion barrels of oil in the 80’s, we are now averaging a debt of 5.5 billion barrels a year.  At this rate, we will hit 100 billion by the end of 2010.  So much for Energy Independence.

I think that this just further illustrates that increased production of alternative energy will only help so much.  The real answer lies in reduced consumption.  Passenger Energy is one tool that could help close this huge gap between production and consumption.