New Energy Watch

Good paper -- Nexus: Oil and Al Qaeda

As a follow-up to the post below, here's a link to a valuable paper called Nexus: Oil and Al Qaeda by Frank H. Denton, PhD., hosted at www.americanenergyindependence.com. The people who run this site are well-informed and committed in an ideologically hard-nosed way to the right causes. Take an hour and dig into some of the extensive material on this site supporting the stone-hard fact that energy independence is a national security matter of the highest priority.

The purpose of NewEnergyWatch.com is to get to the practical matters of environmental responsibility, conservation, and green energy products. We do that by making connections, soliciting ideas and comments that can be shared, and helping people relate their power-consumption habits to real quantities of fuel used and money spent. However, it's really impossible to divorce the topic of national energy use from the policies and politics that determine what Americans can or can't do, or will or won't do about energy.

I have never believed that the U.S. went into Iraq for oil. But the Bush administration's blind allegiance to "natural market forces," hands-off government, and outsourcing has inevitably opened the door for corporate exploitation of Iraq's oil resources, while doing nothing to curb domestic gluttony and encourage a bit of discipline. The result, once again, is that the U.S. looks corrupt and malevolent, where there was, I think, no original evil intent. Just old-fashioned ignorance, and ineptitude.

Today there's no excuse for this administration to ignore the perception around the world that the rhetoric about wars of ideas is just a cynical canard; a cover for oil greed. The administration's hesitation to associate foreign oil imports with terrorist strength, and its refusal to require Americans to undergo any discomfort, financial or physical, in order to subdue and strangle the enemy, is just mystifying. The hands-off attitude makes us appear to be in bed with Big Oil. Despite protestations to the contrary, perceptions count. In this matter, the U.S. looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck.

~ Doug Logan, New Energy Watch

Fuel economy ratings... a strange change

The government has revised its fuel economy numbers for 2007 models. All vehicles will show lower numbers. It's not that they're getting poorer mileage; it's just that the rating methodology has changed. No big whoop, except that, as the formula works, it's the fuel-efficient hybrid cars like the Prius that are taking the biggest hit, perceptually, while heavy lumps like the Cadillac Escalade are showing only minor declines in their numbers. The Escalade, really, is one of the most abysmal, shameful celebrations of American gluttony ever foisted on the public by Detroit. It's almost worse than the Hummer in pure obnoxiousness.

For horse's-mouth information about the new fuel economy ratings: www.fueleconomy.gov.
For a well-designed, well-maintained page on fuel-efficient and green vehicles: MSN Autos - Green Central.

For information about the detestable Cadillac Escalade: MSN Autos - 2007 Cadillac Escalade.

~ Doug Logan, New Energy Watch