“Those 545 people and they alone are responsible.”

Really? Because I would blame the voter first, not the people they put in office.

1. Every time someone went for the cheapest socks, instead of thinking about where it comes from/how it’s made.
2. Buying the vehicle that has the most cupholders/impresses the coworkers instead of thinking about fuel efficiency and useful life of the vehicle.
3. Thinking only about upfront costs instead of lifetime costs for items like lightbulbs, building costs, water heaters, HVAC.
4. Eschewing public transportation.
5. Voting against public transportation & for urban sprawl in voter initiatives. Voting down tax increases & bond issues to pay for public works.
6. Buying individual servings and convenience packages, which means more waste & more oil used (both to make the plastic packaging material & transport the waste).
7. Not doing simple things like bringing own bags to the grocery store, etc that would save thousands of barrels in oil for something that essentially has a 20 minute life, from the store to your home, to your trashcan.
8. Not recycling.
9. Insisting on having fresh, out of season fruits & veggies. Even though frozen meats & produce is cheaper and actually healthier.
10. Refusing to buy used items for our kids. Hand me downs were good enough for us, but our kids must wear new things from Target and Baby Gap. Even though it’s coming from China and the practically pristine clothes the kid down the street outgrew are now heading to the landfill.

You can’t force Detroit to produce energy efficient vehicles. They will do so on their own as they continue to lose sales to other countries. The drop in sales GM, Ford, etc posted last month are staggering. The market will exert its own influence.

The people really are the problem. We grab our lunch at fast food restaurants, drink out of disposable plastic bottles, and drive to work each day. We don’t ask the salesman about green options, don’t know what terms SEER or Energy Star means when shopping for appliances, we just want to see that bottom price. We build new homes further & further out when older ones would do just fine. When we build homes we don’t ask if they are green or LEED, we just ask about the free appliance upgrade. We put in grass that has no business growing where we live, and then waste water trying to keep it alive. We don’t pay the extra money to sign up for windmill power from our utility company, or the saver switch. We waste money & energy in a myriad of little ways: leaving chargers plugged in, leaving lights on at night, not having a programmable thermostat, leaving the computer on while we’re actually downstairs watching a movie. Why? Because we just don’t think.

I’m not going to blame the politicians when we’ve told them over and over again in our actions and own voting the environment & energy aren’t the most important issues to us. Nope that’s family values, gay marriage, activist judges, protecting social security, being tough on terror, etc. Blaming them because we’ve finally woken up from our stupid slumber is rather childish.

Lara Amber

I identify SOLUTIONS as NO Sacred Cows. Everything, Everything, and I mean Everything is on the table. If it produces or uses Energy it needs to be exploited, including forcing Detroit to produce Energy Efficient Vehicles.

To Not have had a meaningful US Energy Policy since the mess in the early 1970’s is NO longer acceptable.

We also need to VOTE out every Incumbent Politician in Washington, DC. We need to continue to VOTE out every Incumbent Politician in Washington, DC until the US has a meaningful US Energy Policy that works and is implemented. NO more duty shirkers in office.

Those 545 people and they alone, are responsible. They alone, have the power. They alone, should be held accountable by the VOTERS. We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess.

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