Lessons NOT Learned

Tuesday was the first real cold morning in CT. I've been waiting for this day for six months now. Waiting for a bellwether of the potential viability of green technology.

Over my 4 miles drive I passed a BMW X5, a Hummer H2 and a couple of Ford Explorer. These vehicles where special. They, in no uncertain terms, spelled the death of many a green startup. It's wasn't so much the vehicles, but the owners that mattered: mothers from decidedly middle-class Shelton, not wanting to expose their young children to the 37 degree weather, bundled them up, stuffed them in their SUV, drove 50 feet to the end of their driveway and idled away awaiting the school bus.

Now, granted gas is back to about $2.50 a gallon, but if there is any indication that the country has learned nothing from the last year, it was evident to me in those idling cars. People are simply not interested in modifying their life styles. They are simply incapable of allowing long term concerns to influence short term behaviors.

Since alternative energy is by definition a long term undertaking, and since OPEC and the law of supply and demand can always influence the short term cost of oil and a 50% drop in oil price just rendered 50% of the green technology non-viable. It just follows that until we actually run out of oil (100 years from now), any attempt at alternative energy will fail.

These 4 mothers did not learn a thing from 2008, and neither did we