Remove subsidies

Explaining my introductory postcard: “Remove subsidies propping up dying industries and tar sands, and invest the savings in a local, low-energy economy.”

Whether we like it or not, our economy is changing.  Change is always painful and it’s natural to do everything we can to avoid it.  When change is unavoidable, however, merely postponing it can make things worse.  That’s the situation we’re in now.

The energy-rich economy we’re all used to is ending.  The more effort we expend in trying to prop it up a little longer, the less prepared we’ll be for the time when no amount of propping will help.  If we want to have any energy resources in the future at all, we need to invest in them now with the energy we’ve got.

Besides, it is wasteful and pointless to put government money into reducing emissions while simultaneously putting government money into industries that substantially increase emissions.  If we’re serious about reducing emissions and we understand that we’ll have to develop other ways of meeting our energy needs, we’ll redirect funding to where it’s needed.

What’s desperately needed is clean, green energy generation, investments into public transit, support for local-based industry and commerce, and above all investments in efficiency and energy reductions, particularly in our homes which are ill-equipped to handle an economy without fossil fuels.

So what will we do about all the jobs lost in the coal, oil and automobile industries?  Well, there should be a lot of jobs building, installing and repairing wind turbines and solar panels, manufacturing and installing insulation, building out rail infrastructure, public transit infrastructure and so on.  So jobs will change.  They have to anyway so that we can build the future our kids deserve.