Empty Tank Empty Wallet (ePub)

The people of Florida, Massachusetts, Oregon, etc. are paying for the "party goin' on" in Texas, Oklohoma, North Dakota, etc. Thank goodness electric cars and renewable energy cost less, and are about to take away the punchbowl. It's none too soon for a world rapidly getting too warm.

Florida ships away $100 million a day in exchange for motor fuel-and natural gas and coal for its electricity generating plants. Other states, Georgia, New Jersey, Connecticut, and so on, suffer the same disadvantage. Call them red-ink states. They send money to black-ink states, Wyoming, Alaska, Kentucky, etc. the ones that produce fossil fuel, and to Venezuela, Russia ,Saudi Arabia and Canada.

The burden will get heavier because oil becomes ever more expensive to extract. A growing, and wealthier, world population competes for the supply. And eventually a carbon penalty will be imposed. The carbon problem is the biggest and may prove the most expensive.

The move away from fossil fuels is practical now, but it is held back by inertia and an organized effort to slow it by the entrenched interests that are well rewarded by the status quo. These interests control policy in Washington.

This is a wake-up call to red-ink state citizens. You're bleeding, but your politicians are not coming to your aid. They don't seem to care about all that money coming out of your pocket. Demand a home-grown fix to your economic hardship, and at the same time start your state on the path to responsible world citizenship on climate change.