How about some Texas Tea?

Texas Governor and presidential hopeful, Rick Perry has announced part of his plan to fix the economy and create jobs. Gov. Perry wants to reduce regulations and open up protected federal lands for oil exploration. Really? If he was from Wisconsin, I'm guessing the solution would lie within the dairy industry. Let me translate for Gov. Perry: Let my rich friends and supporters rape the land and screw the people and we will all be better off ("we" includes those rich friends and supporters and excludes everyone else).

I'm not a raving environmentalist. I don't panic every time the weather is unseasonably, hot, cold, wet, dry or windy. Holes in the ozone layer worry me about as much as holes in my underwear. When things start falling out, it's time to do something. However, oil production is not a long-term solution. This is nothing more than the continuation of the mañana principle. Let me explain. Mañana is Spanish for tomorrow. Long ago, some friends used to take trips to Mexico twice a year. They always stayed at the same place, and next door was a hotel being built by two (and only two) men. After a few years of watching the extremely slow progress, they asked the men when the hotel would be finished. Their reply: "mañana".

Postponement is not a solution. The world's oil usage continues to grow. At some point the supply will be gone. Should we be trying to reach that point as quick as possible? The shift in recent years towards renewable energy seems a good move. Granted, eventually the sun will stop producing the light needed for solar energy. When that happens, everyone will be riding in a gas-powered nova (physics pun, ignore it). There will be failures in the efforts to better harness the sources of renewable energy, there will even be disasters. People will die, lives will be ruined and money will be lost. These are the building blocks of progress.

Time to suck it up, Gov. Perry. Hit a few boardrooms in Houston and let them good ol' boys know that you're no longer for sale. The President of the United States should have more important things to do than making sure the rich get richer while the rest of us get screwed.