…at least in this respect. In the energy section of the speech, sure, we all love wind farms, especially located a hundred yards off the picture window of Ted Kennedy’s waterfront property. But for most of this stuff to make any difference at all would require a dramatic transformation of both the US economy and the behavior of the American people. That’s unreal.
On the other hand, if the issue is the economy’s dependence on unstable oil-producing regimes, why not just increase domestic production? That’s real, and doable. The only reason we don’t is for aesthetic reasons – not Ted Kennedy’s picture window but the picture window of the world’s biggest mosquito herd up in ANWR.
The fact that, in a time of war centered on Arabia, the President feels he can’t even mention domestic oil production is depressing. It shows that national security issues are still framed in terms of peripheral eco-aesthetics.