A Golden Opportunity

What's a body to believe? Every day the debate rages on -- it's global warming. No, it's not. We're running out of oil. No, we're not. The price of gas is going up. No, it's not. Oh, wait, that one's true for sure. The answer is, it doesn't matter who is right and who is wrong. We have a golden economic opportunity here, my friends.

T. Boone Pickens, Jr., the Texas oil billionaire, recently announced that he was investing in wind farms, not because he has suddenly turned green, but because that is where the money is to be made. Oil is passé. The future is alternative power -- solar arrays, wind farms, wave turbines. The future is hybrid cars that get 350 mpg. The future is buildings that are designed to stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter thereby slashing power bills to a shred of their former selves. The future is no more dependence on foreign oil and foreign oil prices!

But what about all those dire predictions that our economy would be hurt by a conversion to alternative fuels? Well, I've scoured the internet looking for a credible source for those dire predictions, and I can't find any! What I do find is more and more businesses, including oil companies like Shell, BP and ConocoPhillips, more and more economists, more and more experts of every kind and ilk saying that moving away from oil to cleaner, healthier, renewable sources of energy will only make our economy stronger.

So it's win-win-win-win. We strengthen our economy and create thousands of new jobs. We tell Iraq and Saudi Arabia, thank you very much but we don't want any more of your blankety blank oil. We lower our energy bills. We leave our children a cleaner, healthier, world. And, just in case the doomsayers were right after all, we avert doom.

There is a bill being debated in the senate right now that addresses this very opportunity. That bill is The Climate Security Act. It has already been endorsed by 800 entrepreneurs and investors who believe it will create whole new industries and thousands of new jobs. But don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself. If you believe, as I do, that this is where our future lies, then please take the time to let your senator know where you stand. It's time we gave American ingenuity the incentive it needs to usher in a bright, new age.