The idea that we should cut federal taxes on gas for the summer is an appallingly cynical, politically motivated panacea only two candidates for President could cook up. Do they really think Americans won’t recognize this for what it is: A cheesy handout to warm up voters?

Read Tom Friedman on this:

“The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: “Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.”

Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies.”

Greenwashing is slang for disinformation campaigns created to make a company or organization appear to be green when in fact they are not.

The Chinese had to cancel the Olympic torch run in Paris today because of thousands of pro-Tibet protesters. I don’t see how they can continue this thing through to August given the protests that have dogged it so far. China’s leaders are displaying a profound misunderstanding of the depth of feeling about this issue and others like their support of Darfur. When people start talking about a global boycott of Chinese goods (which is now in the wind) they may finally understand that they can no longer control the flow of information regarding their internal policies.

This is only the beginning of their troubles. Their horrendous pollution problems are going to be spotlighted as athletes start to wonder whether it is safe to compete in a place where people routinely wear masks when they go outside. Despite plans to virtually halt traffic weeks before the game and stop all polluting industries temporarily I doubt the skies will clear and the water miraculously become clean.

Again, this is a control issue. China can’t control their environment any better than they control information. The world is watching and China invited us.

“Skybus Airlines announced it was shutting down Saturday, with the low-cost airline blaming the “insurmountable” pressures of rising jet fuel costs and a slowing economic environment.
Columbus, Ohio-based Skybus became the fourth airline this week to close or announce plans to do so.”

From MarketWatch (emphasis mine)

The others are Aloha, ATA and Champion Air. Fuel surcharges for flights are skyrocketing and the airlines have separated them from their advertised prices. For example I recently saw a one way price of $220 for a NY to London flight. Sounds pretty good right? Except that it did not include a $160 fuel surcharge each way.

The impact of rising energy costs is everywhere. Food, commodities, travel, transportation- you name it. Yet we are, as a nation, doing virtually nothing about it (except for begging OPEC to give us a deal). History is going to look back and wonder how we could ignore the breadth of change that is upon us.