Citizen Brand

More Gas Attacks

Where is real leadership when we need it? 

The Republicans in Congress want to give us all $100 each to offset the rise in the price of gasoline.  Seriously.

The Democrats counter with an anti-price gouging bill that would give the Federal Trade Commission the authority to investigate price gouging and punish those who artificially inflate the price of energy.  And what do we do while we are awaiting the results of those investigations?

We don't need a C-note and we don't need more investigations that go nowhere.

What we need is Winston Churchill or Teddy Roosevelt or Martin Luther King or Abraham Lincoln or Harry Truman.

What we have is someone like Dennis Hastert who isn't intelligent enough to understand that if you hold a political stunt news conference at a gas station and then depart in an alternative fuel automobile, you should drive further than one block.  Actually, I don't blame the Speaker, I blame his staff for that faux pas.  His press secretary needs some remedial media relations classes.

The media relations stupidity is bipartisan.  Democrats held their own gas station news conference and then hopped in cars to drive one block back to their offices. 

So when you pull into the gas station this weekend and watch the dollars roll by on the pump, think about what you want your local member of Congress to do about the energy crisis we now face.  Elections are in November.  It's time to remind them who is the boss.

Gas Attack

I'm on the road all week.  One of my trips was by car which means I had the chance to buy a couple of tanks of gas.  Right now, it almost requires taking out a loan.

We can spend time debating what should happen to the oil companies right now or we can spend that time discussing what needs to happen to lessen our dependence on those same oil companies.  Real discussion requires some knowledge of what alternatives there are and what the pros and cons are of each one.  Popular Mechanics short circuits the research process for us.  It includes this chart comparing the costs of driving across country using different fuels.  Now we just need to figure out how to get it done.

One of my colleagues, Jeff Risley, pointed out tonight that Thomas Friedman writes in his book, The World is Flat, that President Bush had the opportunity to be the leader who could have made the USA energy independent just as John Kennedy made the USA leaders in space exploration.  Bush's pronouncements this week may be an attempt to start down that road but with his current chilly poll numbers, success will be difficult.

On the other hand, what are other political leaders doing about this issue?  What are they waiting for?  If the President is in a weakened state, the laws of nature say someone must be in a position of strength.  Whoever that is should use their leverage and show some leadership on an issue that matters.

And while we are discussing leadership, where are the Citizen Brands among the corporate elite that are ready to step up and say the time has come for industry to seek out alternative energy methods?