I'd support the Green Tea Party and the Radical Center

I like Tom Friedman's idea of the 'radical center'. Too often the loudest voices are the only ones heard. And in today's world, this end up being the radical right and the radical left. The left laughs at and looks down on the 'Drill, Baby, Drill'-ers; at the same time, the right looks at the people who want to move to all clean energy as Loonies. I agree with both!

On the energy issue, we do eventually need to move to clean energy. But the most important priority is to stop sending dirty oil money to dictatorships. It is ok to first drill in the US, with two caveats: we should be using less oil overall and this should be a short term solution as we transition to clean energy. Combine this with driving much more efficient cars, and you can reduce the amount of money being sent to these dictatorships by 20 percent in a matter of a decade. Doesn't sound like much? The dictators need the 80 percent they are getting today to pay their bills. It's the extra 20 percent that causes so much mischief. It's also this same extra 20 percent that is sending global warming over the edge. It's the tipping point.

Tom Friedman's right: solutions don't have to be perfect. They just have to be effective in the near term. We got to stop looking at things as opposig forces and instead put strategies together to make them stronger. Reducing our dependency on foreign oil by using more US oil and reducing our overall oil use will have a big impact immediately and get us on our way toward using greener technologies and sources.

From The New York Times:

OP-ED COLUMNIST: Tea Party With a Difference

One way to put all the patriotic energy from the Tea Party Movement to good use would be to go green.

http://nyti.ms/9l6sWd

Posted via email from Suneil Mandava's Posterous