[corp-focus] Alternative Power

[robert weissman]

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Alternative Power
By Robert Weissman
March 19, 2008

As part of a national day of action, hundreds of people marched in 
downtown Washington, D.C. this morning to protest five years of the Iraq 
war and occupation. They blocked traffic and sought to highlight the 
Washington institutions that have enabled the long-running, criminal and 
disastrous war.

A group of protesters gathered outside of the American Petroleum 
Institute (API), for what was called a celebration of an expected 
announcement that API will change its name to the Alternative Power 
Institute.

Said a mocking release from the protesters: "Its first act as the new 
API is anticipated to be the notification of every member of the United 
States House and Senate whom it has legally bribed in recent years that, 
in light of API's just announced transition to promotion of renewable 
energy technologies, there is no further requirement to fund the 
occupation of Iraq."

This is parody with a purpose.

What if in fact the United States was no longer addicted to oil? Can 
anyone seriously believe the United States would have invaded Iraq? Alan 
Greenspan among others has acknowledged that guaranteeing the Middle 
Eastern supply of oil was the underlying rationale for the war.

What if in fact the oil industry -- and that of other fossil fuel 
industries -- ceded its political power (or if that power was taken away)?

Suddenly, the transition to a sustainable energy future would be much 
more achievable.

The United States, and the world, needs a massive infusion of resources 
into energy efficiency, renewable energy technology deployment, and 
research into new efficiency and renewable technologies.

We face financial and technological challenges of an enormous scale.

But the threshold problem is political. Governments are not doing what 
they can -- and that which scientists say must be done immediately -- 
because of the balance of power. Too much power for Big Oil, the auto 
companies, the utilities and coal companies. Too little power mobilized 
by the people in order to save the planet.

Since publication of Ron Suskind's 2004 New York Times magazine article, 
it has been commonplace to ridicule the Bush administration for not 
living in the "reality-based" world. I confess to having engaged in this 
guilty pleasure myself.

But in fact the famous Bush aide quote mocking "the reality-based 
community" deserves at least as much emulation as ridicule. It wasn't a 
comment about faith versus reality, it was a statement of a political 
philosophy and commitment: not to be constrained by apparent political 
or other restraints, but to act decisively to make history.

Here is what Suskind wrote:

"The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the 
reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that 
solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' I 
nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and 
empiricism. He cut me off. 'That's not the way the world really works 
anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create 
our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, 
as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you 
can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's 
actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'"

OK, there is a degree to which this quote suggests that maybe even the 
laws of nature can be overcome with enough willpower, but essentially 
the Bush adviser was saying that the administration's mission is not to 
accept reality, but to make it. There is a something to be learned here.

One lesson that can be drawn from the fifth anniversary of the shameful 
Iraq war, as well as from the recent Federal Reserve actions to uphold 
the financial system, is that the United States can find the money to do 
things it believes important. There are real fiscal limits, but the 
spectacular wealth of the United States gives it the power to find 
astounding resources for top priorities.

The federal government has spent $700 billion to kill hundreds of 
thousands of people in Iraq, on a mission leading to the deaths of 4,000 
U.S. soldiers and the maiming of thousands more. The Federal Reserve has 
conjured $200 billion to keep Wall Street functioning.

Can there be any doubt that the United States could, tomorrow, begin 
spending $100 billion a year -- or much more -- to address global warming?

We can only hope that today's demonstration at API is an early, small 
step, taking us to alternative power -- a new political balance of power 
and a new and urgently felt commitment to alternative energy investment 
and deployment.

Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational 
Monitor, <http://www.multinationalmonitor.org> and director of Essential 
Action <http://www.essentialaction.org>.

(c) Robert Weissman

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