To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end. . . .

~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet

 “To be, or not to be:”

With each unsustainable day that passes and with every movement we make, we must ask what Shakespeare asked hundreds of years ago, “To be or not to be: that is the question.”

For without a logical, methodical, deliberate and implementable sustainable energy plan for the future, surely the United States will “die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end.”

The United States is on a cataclysmic path that promises to have a fairly dismal ending.

How can anyone ever believe that we can continue to use finite energy resources without eventually running out? Even if we needn’t worry about depleting our main energy resources, the collateral effects of an energy-scarce future have already demonstrated their effects on our economy, national sovereignty and quality of life.

You can probably imagine a figure in a dimly lit room wringing his hands and asking, “What shall we do?”

In my book, Winning the Energy Wars: A Sustainable Energy Plan for America’s Future, I present a plan that domestically transitions the United States from its reliance on finite energy resources to a sustainable and infinite energy future. The benefits of such an effort are so innumerable that discussing them requires volumes of books.

The bottom line, however, is not difficult to understand.

For decades, we have been tackling the energy Armageddon by simply looking at the effects of energy consumption. But if we focus on the cause of the energy crisis we can not only solve the problem but erase the effects.

The cause of the energy problem is quite simple: energy supply. The more people there are globally that want to be part of American prosperity, the more energy they will demand. The higher the demand for finite resources, the faster those resources will escalate in price and the faster they will disappear.

Rather than pontificate to the global community on how they should or should not use energy, the United States must adopt a visionary and sustainable energy plan that will secure a prideful legacy.

Once the United States has demonstrated how a truly sustainable energy future works, the world will follow, both because it will be the most efficient way to go and because non-sustainable avenues will die.

“…to take arms against a sea of troubles…”

It is almost unfathomable that a nation as great, powerful and energy-reliant as the United States has no energy plan.

Our politicians have failed us. The federal government’s ineptness in this arena demonstrates that the likelihood of the government developing a plan is remote at best. So it is up to us, yes we the people, to turn this country around, to revise our future and to regain our independence.

This is where you come in.

We can change our course by communally envisioning our energy future and implementing a Sustainable Energy Plan that replaces no future with a sustainable future. Here are three simple steps to achieve this goal:

1. Contact your congressional representatives, governors and the President, and:
a. ask them to learn what a Sustainable Energy Plan is through reading Winning the Energy Wars,
b. insist that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) be decommissioned, and
c. ask them to create the Governors’ National Sustainable Energy Council (GNSEC).

2. Direct your congressional representatives to:
a. redirect all DOE and all federal energy program funds from all departments to the GNSEC and
b. establish the Alternative Energy Bond Fund by:
1. setting surcharges on finite fuels and related vehicles,
2. directing all U.S. financial establishments to donate, through the Invest in America program, one cent per individual
stock/bond/option/etc. trade, and
3. creating U.S. Savings Bonds Series AE (alternative energy).

3. Ask the Governors’ Sustainable Energy Council to:
a. locate the National Energy Sustainability headquarters in America’s heartland,
b. convene an executive committee and hire anexecutive director,
c. appoint a stellar business-oriented public/private partnership oversight committee, and
d. reorganize all former DOE National Laboratories and related university research sites into task-focused, outcomes-based Sustainable Energy Centers.

R. Paul Williamson is founder and CEO of the non-profit Sustainable Systems of Colorado. He holds bachelor’s degrees in secondary education and communications; master’s in curriculum and instruction and media technology, and a doctorate in technology education. He has served as a dean at four colleges including the University of Montana, where he created the Montana Hydrogen Futures Project, a plan incorporating the state’s human, natural and renewable resources to create a statewide, hydrogen-based economy. Presently, he is working to create a sustainable future for the US; deployment of a self-sustaining, hydrogen-powered, magnetic levitation personal rapid transit monorail system; a sustainable smart home development; and an H2 Futures Business Park. (www.usa-sep.com).

~

Editor: Lara C.

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