Time for a change

It is difficult to keep a partisan tone out the commentary with an administration as bad as President Bush's in place. A piece by Thomas Friedman in today's New York Times discusses how the inability for the U.S. to develop an effective energy will or has, shifted the global balance of power away from America.

"It baffles me that President Bush would rather go to Saudi Arabia twice in four
months and beg the Saudi king for an oil price break than ask the American
people to drive 55 miles an hour, buy more fuel-efficient cars or accept a
carbon tax or gasoline tax that might actually help free us from, what he
called, our “addiction to oil."

Our inaction to develop a strategic energy policy and to deal with global climate change issues has hindered our relevance as the "indispensible nation" on the international stage. This is not solely due to our blunder in Iraq. Failing to sign the Kyoto Treaty was particularly harmful beyond just the environmental implications. The most far-reaching environmental treaty in history being negotiated without the United States would have been almost unthinkable a decade ago. That is equally troublesome.