It’s the name of the game.
President Obama is into it – check out his agenda for Securing American Energy. His opponents are all over it too: the American Energy Alliance is running ads attacking the President’s energy policy. But on this much they agree: American Energy is the good kind.
But how do we know which energy is American? The distinguishing factor seems to be the physical location where the energy is extracted or collected. So, oil from Saudi Arabia is not American, but oil from North Dakota is.
It can get a little confusing: Oil from tar sands in Alberta is North American, so it’s pretty much “American.” Oil from Venezuela is South American, so it’s not really “American” at all.
But when the President and his opponents pump “American” Energy, they are trying to connect to something more than where the holes get drilled. They are invoking our national values. They’re appealing to a word and a symbol – America – the core meaning of which is found not on a map, but in our creed.
So, what if we had an energy policy defined by American values? What if when we said “American Energy,” what we meant was not lumps of coal or barrels of oil extracted from U.S. soil, but the kind of energy that embodies what it really means to be American?
In that world, American Energy might be about:
Freedom: We would avoid energy sources like oil that prop up dictatorships and subject Americans to the abuse of concentrated economic power. Energy efficiency and conservation, in contrast, liberate people from volatile energy costs, market manipulations, and the inexorable price pressure of rising demand for finite resources. With more efficient vehicles, buildings and appliances, we can do more while using less: the ultimate energy freedom.
Democracy: Fossil fuel industries have accumulated unprecedented wealth and power. Their money pollutes our democracy as aggressively as their emissions pollute our air. Solar energy, on the other hand, is ubiquitous, and the fuel is free. The sun delivers more energy in an hour than humans use in a year. We can collect and finance solar energy together on our homes and businesses. If we put our energy dollars into solar panels, wind turbines, electric cars, and public transit, maybe ExxonMobil won’t have enough money to buy so many politicians. Renewable energy is available everywhere, but its resilience against economic and political tyranny is quintessentially American.
Responsibility: America pioneered a fossil-fueled path to prosperity, and if the whole world follows it, we are all toast. So now we can and must blaze a clean energy path to prosperity. When we do, America can proudly lead the world economy and Americans can do right by our kids. (The Island President makes an irresistible case for this kind of American energy.)
Dependence on fossil fuels is crippling our nation – bleeding our economy, destabilizing the climate, eroding national security, and undermining our ability to control our institutions. No matter where they drill and dig, those resources belong to Big Oil and King Coal – not you, not me, not America.
Clean energy, transportation choices, and energy efficiency can free us. America has what it takes to build a clean energy economy and take back our democracy from the fossil fuel industries who use our energy dollars to corrupt our political process. We have the resources, the technology, and the ingenuity to control our destiny and build a better future.
That’s American energy. Fossil fuel addiction is American’t.
(….with props to Van Jones and Rebuild the Dream for the American/American’t bite…..)
