I just want to go on the record on a couple of things. I’ve been meaning to mention these for a while, but I kept forgetting.

1) Global warming. I call bs on this one. I’m in the camp that the temperature is more dependent on the solar cycle than minor fluctuations we impose. I predict that it will get way colder over the next 5 years, and that the debate will not have moved one iota, as the environmentalists will continue to tow their line and will not be swayed, no matter how far the temperature average drops. It’s sad we can’t have a civil discourse about this.
2) Ethanol. Ethanol is dumb and just poor policy. No real alternative energy source should cause food prices to rise. Nor should it have to be super subsidized (unfortunately it will have be subsidized some, but the true alternative most likely will be the first one that’s lucrative).
3) Alternative energy. I say this isn’t the panacea that many people tote it to be. Aside from the obvious lack of base load, the lack of correlation between source locations and population centers, and the inability for any commercial entity thus far to have been able to sufficiently monetize it, I don’t think we should pour lots of money into it, as it’s honestly just not a good, cheap, long term solution.