Surging Gold Prices and the American Endgame

By Thomas Naylor

Every time President George W. Bush opens his mouth, the price of gold goes up. When he declared victory in the war in Iraq on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, the price of gold was $320 per troy ounce. A few months later it was more than $400 per ounce, and by February 2006 a heady $575 per ounce. When the world is going to hell in a hand basket, people invest in gold. Wars, terrorism, recession, high budget deficits, supply shortages, energy price spikes, rampant inflation, and high interest rates all give rise to higher gold prices. The more misery there is, the higher the price of gold.

An Apology, Sort Of (The Hypocrisy of Our Energy Policy)

by Jeff Danziger

(This letter from syndicated cartoonist Jeff Danziger was published in the Barre-Montplier Times Argus on February 5, 2006, in reply to Gov. James Douglas' response to an editorial cartoon. The letter is reprinted with the permission of The Times Argus.)

Gov. James Douglas has contacted me through intermediaries to voice his concern that a recent cartoon was unfair and unfactual. I can't respond graphically without compounding the problem and leading to further hurt feelings, so I will revert to the written word.

Is the Solution to Home Heating in Our Own Backyard?

By Anita Kelman

Concern over space-heating costs, for both homes and commercial use, has been in the news lately. Rising energy prices for oil and natural gas, as well as” Peak Oil” issues, have focused attention on the need for alternatives, especially here in the Northeast with our long, cold winters. Additionally, the increasing evidence of climate change has emphasized the connection between the use of fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions.

Although burning cordwood, corn, or wood pellets in conventional biomass stoves works, there are numerous issues associated with these renewable energy sources. Cordwood involves the cutting of trees, handling of large quantities of firewood, emissions of particulates and other pollutants, and release of the carbon sequestered in the trees, adding to greenhouse gases. Burning corn in pellet stoves raises questions about efficiency due to the high level of energy needed to grow the corn and the secondary impacts associated with growing a row crop, including fertilizer use and soil erosion. Wood pellets are increasingly in short supply, due to efficiencies in logging operations and sharp increases in demand.

EDITORIAL: Independence Means Energy Independence

by Ian Baldwin

The current challenge of the world energy picture has two faces: CO2 emissions (global warming) and Peak Oil (soaring costs). These two phenomena, above all others, will frame the debate about energy for the rest of our lives. And they exert an unyielding pressure upon us to be wonderfully creative.

In his essay “Drill and Kill” (see page 7), Gary Flomenhoft reminds us that “Energy is not a technical problem; it's a political problem.” Any discussion of energy must begin with this insight. It's not that there aren't technical challenges to be solved – in transportation, in heating/cooling systems, in power-generation, distribution and storage, and in petrochemical agriculture – but rather, do we Vermonters have the will to find new ways to meet our energy needs?

In Energy Policy, Too, Size Matters

By Kirkpatrick Sale

A comprehensive global Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) has been published regularly in recent years, the work of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University. It ranks 146 of the countries of the world according to a range of 76 “data sets,” measuring such things as pollution levels, air and water quality, energy use, biodiversity, population control, and environmental regulations.

It should come as no surprise that, according to the 2005 index (the most recent issued), the leading countries are for the most part relatively small, in both land and population, and relatively cohesive.

Biofuels: Local Energy Solutions
By Netaka White

As the environmental, economic, and energy-security concerns associated with a dependence on petroleum become more evident, Vermonters need to explore alternatives to fossil fuels and to develop both the supply and demand sides of these alternative fuel markets.

An integral part of these changes is the understanding that simply replacing our current level of energy consumption with renewable fuels or solar, wind, or hydrogen power cannot get us out of the fix we're in. Along the path to increased use of renewables, we will each have to wrestle with the American culture's push for faster, bigger, and more and more. We need to apply our collective knowledge (and political pressure) to living well with slower and smaller and enough-is-enough.

Best Buy the Dams Now

By Dave Dunn, Hervey Scudder, and Rick Foley

Many Vermonters feel that the state should have purchased the eight hydroelectric dams on the Connecticut and Deerfield rivers two years ago, and lament the failed attempt. As members of the NorthEast Center for Social Issues Studies (NECSIS) team of utility-industry managers, financiers, lawyers, and energy consultants that initiated the widespread public support for the idea that Vermonters buy the dams back in 2003, we are often asked, “What happened to the dam deal?”
That's a fascinating century-long saga about wealthy outsiders developing our commons, and offers deeper reflections. Right now, however, you may want to know what compromised the most recent chapter in the people's attempt to own the dams – because it's not too late to buy the dams.

Hostage to a Nuclear Plant

By Ray Shadis

“Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies”

Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, Part One, 1791

History contains a few accounts of the purposeful or deliberate disservice of one generation to the next. In late antiquity and the onset of the dark ages, whole populations, stressed to the limits of survival, sold their children and children's descendents into slavery.

“Drill and Kill”

By Gary Flomenhoft

“I Paid My Income Tax Today” (excerpt: revised)
by Irving Berlin

Commissioned in 1942 by the U.S. Treasury Dept.

I paid my income tax today
I never felt so proud before
To be right there with the millions more
Who paid their income tax today
I'm squared up with the U.S.A.
See those bombers in the sky?
Rockefeller (Lockheed) helped to build ‘em, so did I
I paid my income tax today.

I paid my income tax today
A thousand planes to bomb Berlin (Baghdad)
They'll all be paid for and I chipped in
That certainly makes me feel okay