Independence Day From BP2010-07-07

 Why are oil’s biggest critics so silent on Capitol Hill in the wake of the BP oil spill I asked  one of my social media networks in response to a CNN article of the same title? The one that stuck with me was from a gentleman who gave me the perfect metaphor for our predicament--the resin in wind turbines derives from oil too.

This begs the question: If even wind turbines aren’t fossil fuel free, how is it remotely possible to pull ourselves from this vicious cycle we set in motion over 100 years ago, let alone sell the public on the need for wholesale change? 

On July 4th, I decided to see for myself how hard it would be to declare my own personal oil independence. “I can do this,” I reasoned. After all, I’m a non-meat eating, compost bin owning, canvass bag carrying, solar pool heating, clean energy economy pimping, Top 10 Things You Can Do To Save The Earth list reading, Tony Hayward hating American. How hard can it be?

As it turns out, it’s pretty difficult. In fact, I didn’t even last the morning. My visiting parents needed to be taken to the airport; our four dogs needed exercise at the dog park; I had only five minutes to get to my exercise class a mile away and the next bus didn’t arrive for ten; and my son continues to steadfastly resist all forms of bribery and threats to learn how to ride a bike--and yes, I drive an SUV to cart all of these bipeds and quadrupeds around (even though it gets 25% better gas mileage than my last car).

My consumer behavior isn’t much better. My Sunday New York Times was delivered by truck. Pancakes for breakfast? The mix comes in plastic wrapping made from (you guessed it) oil. Locally grown strawberries? Wrapped in a plastic container. Parabaen free shampoo? Chemical free but not so lucky with the bottle. Bags to pick up after the dogs? You get the drift.

Like with any failed experiment, there are lessons to be learned, and here are mine:

Oil isn’t going away any time soon. BP may end up standing for Buyout Potential as other oil companies seek global advantage in picking up the skeletal remains, but it’s unlikely to have a short term effect on the supply, price or consumer behavior. This was further crystallized for me by a recent New York Times/CBS surveyshowing that while a majority of Americans want change in our energy policy, a majority also say they don’t want to pay for it.

The transition to a clean energy economy is precisely that--a transition, not a departure. While I’m personally in favor of a great bounding leap forward with a carbon cap, it’s more likely to see Congress shuffle along slowly with a walker as they invest in more research and energy standards that meet head on with the realpolitik necessity to create jobs in their districts.

We treasure our mobility. Convincing Americans to get out of their cars isn’t going to happen solely with a price signal. While it’s true that more people took mass transit when gas prices hit $4 per gallon in 2008, it’s also true that fewer people are driving in 2010 because they have no jobs to get to. Closer to home, I wanted to get to my exercise class on time. The choice wasn’t between driving or taking mass transit; it was between staying and going. Scolding people about their driving habits will only serve to alienate them, a message the larger environmental community often forgets. 

We love innovation. If the Administration wanted to really walk the talk about job creation and reducing oil usage while undercutting conservatives’ cries about national security and deficits, they should sell the construction of a nationwide transit system that would put millions of Americans back to work while giving us the mobility and convenience we crave while leaving a lasting legacy for future generations.

To finance this forward looking system, we need only look to our recent past. Our grandparents bought $2 trillion (in today’s money) worth of Victory Bonds to fight the Axis Powers during World War II. Issuing Green Victory Bonds would help us to fight the most dangerous foreign challenge we’ve arguably faced since that time. It would also give people a way to express their patriotism and a vehicle to earn interest for their hard earned dollars as an alternative to mutual funds for college and retirement that have traditionally relied on oil profits to generate good returns.

These bonds match the American ethos of self-reliance and strike a direct emotional chord that matches the public’s can-do expectations of their leaders.  Carbon emissions offsets are nice, but reforestation projects and carbon exchanges aren’t fungible in the same way. Millions of leisure travelers like my retired parents aren’t likely to want to make their airfare any more expensive (especially when the airlines nickel and dime passengers for bag fees and pillows), nor would they feel the immediate emotional or logical connection to spending those extra dollars on something called a methane biodigester. 

On the other hand, put a link up on an airline website that allows them to donate $5, $10 or $20 for a bond in the name of their grandchildren that will earn dividends and be used to develop cheaper, non-oil based airplane fuel to save them money on future flights and leave the planet in better shape for those darling little tikes--and you hit all the emotional hot buttons. 

People want to feel good about the changes they make, even if they are incremental. I failed my BP-free test miserably, not because my evil Earth-hating twin is Lex Luthor or because I condone BP’s reckless behavior. I do, however, rationalize it by looking at all the good things I do to be environmentally conscious and the political causes where I invest my money. Asking, “Is it enough?” is the wrong question. Any good organizer will tell you the way to get people involved is to give them an easy task to complete first. Only when they are invested will they commit to more difficult changes.

While it exasperates clean energy advocates to see Americans continue to opt for gas guzzlers rather than clamoring for millions of electric vehicles to be churned out of our factories, public opinion is something that can only be won over incrementally. We didn’t declare our independence simply by dumping the East India Company’s tea into Boston Harbor, and it took Franklin Roosevelt eight years, millions of lives and the bombing of one of our naval bases before he could get the American public fully behind him in the war against totalitarianism. 

Likewise, I’m no longer so sure the disaster in the Gulf is a watershed moment, just one more in a long series of sign posts about our unnatural addiction to oil. And that silence? I’m not positive, but after my failed experiment, I think it’s called culpability.

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