New York Times Energy Bill Editorial

The last EIGHT Presidents, Republican and Democratic have recognized the need for a complete overhaul of our energy policies and the likely need for a price on carbon, but NONE of them have followed through and the Congress has put its personal members political interest in front of the country's everytime. I'm only glad that I won't live to see the full results of their cowardice, but unfortunately, I have to live through the decline. Until there is a price on carbon, we quit subsidizing oil and coal, and we get serious about energy conservation, there will NEVER be life without an energy crisis of some kind. Meanwhile, China, with its authoritarian government, can continue to build a coal plant a week, while still making leaps forward to make itself the leader of green technology throughout the world. Maybe when it is too late for us to take the lead we will wake up to what we are doing to jobs, the climate, the environment, and the middle class in this country. We can point the finger at our "leaders" but we are the ones who put them there and failed to demand accountability from them. All this talk about the burden the deficit will place on your children and grandchildren is pontification, since there won't be a livable planet for them to grow up in and the jobs to pay the debt.