Tornado Alley (PROG)

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I understand how gov funding is spread, I'm saying it has not worked very well. We still suffer from energy dependence even with the govs having the clear warning from the 70's all that happened was more 'regulations' and subsidy that helped Big Business. That is all we can expect from Big Government because their buddies the CEO's have rigged the game.

The problem is that we've switched between two parties in government, each with a different agenda and ideology of how to address the energy problem. Democrats like Carter and Clinton funded energy research. Reagan and Bush I and II just gave more subsidies to the oil companies, in the hopes that America could control a larger share of world oil supply (it didn't work).

Now, we have Obama following the Carter and Clinton policies of funding energy research, and Republicans are still asking for off-shore drilling to increase our oil supply. Obama is being pragmatic and willing to do a little of both, but I think the majority of funding should go to energy research.

Plus, I think it's worth pointing out that we have shown some fruits from the energy research in this country. Look at the explosion of LED and compact flourescent lightbulbs, the retrofitting of buildings to be LEED certified for energy efficiency, and the huge growth in wind, hydro, geothermal, and biowaste fuel sources.

My local energy company, called PGE (which was spun off from Enron, by the way), now gives me the option to pay about $5 more on my electric bill so that PGE can expand my number of megawatts of energy to come from wind, geothermal, and biowaste fuel sources, which are now growing in number along the West Coast. That's progress, and I'm happy to pay the small premium to incentivize these alternative options.

Democrates have been duped again, thinking Obama would bring "hope and change" but when his advisor is Summers and his financial General is Geithner, we know they are going to serve their gods, GS - JPM and their Zeus - Ben Bernanke. Obama is not the guy to bring hope and change, I'm sorry to inform you.

I just don't feel that way, and I've already explained why. I think Obama is a good strategist who keeps his friends close, and his enemies closer. I think he hears advice from Summers and Geithner, but Obama's still the one making the decisions.

How would I know...? Because when Obama talks about lending to small businesses through local banks, that's not something that Geithner or Summers would come up with. And when Obama talks about enforcing regulations on banks and breaking up Too Big to Fail, that's certainly not a policy that the Wall Street lobbyists would support.

So you have to look beyond Obama's company, and watch his actions, and what he's pushing through Congress as well.