oil

On Day One, the next President should push legislation to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq

On Day 1, the next president should demonstrate the political will to create the energy revolution that this world needs. He or she should take steps to reduce and eventually eliminate the nation's dependency on oil. If this isn't done, we'll all find ourselves in big trouble a few years down the road. In this way, the president can demonstrate the kind of courage and leadership that we constantly say we have, and our country can prove its benevolence to the planet.

From Day One, the next president should have as their highest priority getting us off our addiction to oil, coal, and nuclear power. The president needs to lead America into a new energy future and pave the way for a 21st century energy economy, one based on high-performance, low-carbon technologies like solar wind and efficiency.

The next President needs to solve the war in Iraq, and do it within a week, or we need to leave. The next President should also demand some reparations for the work that the US has done to liberate the country-- perhaps hand us over one or two of their oil fields to bring down the price of oil.

I would like to see a plan implemented to provide taxi companies in larger cities incentives to purchase hybrid cars for their taxis. A government backed grant program that woulde help cab companies purchase hybrid cars would help decrease emissions and would also greatly decrease the demand for fuel in our larger cities. Hybrid cars get the best fuel mileage in stop and go traffic, which would be perfectly suited to constant city driving.

Progressive Growth The American Dream has been a story of progressive policy establishing conditions in which individuals have been able to seize opportunities and make a better life for themselves, their children, their families, and their communities. It can be so again. The ladder of economic mobility can be rebuilt with the right leadership and progressive policy.

Install solar-energy roof panels atop the White House to supply all electrical energy the WH uses (and give some back to the grid). Convert WH limos/cars to plug-in hybrids, to show the rest of us the way. This is a no-brainer: Some solar company/association would do it for free for the publicity (the real point, of course). Ditto the car company you choose to donate the electric vehicles. You'll have to show some backbone re bucking the auto/oil interests, who will oppose it. CAN YOU????

The cold war era policy to expand highways has destroyed older American cities by slicing up neighborhoods and contributing to an unsustainable use of energy for shipping and transporting. Let's redesign how we move stuff and ourselves with greater efficiency. The cost of gas for cars and planes will only go higher. Instead of leasing toll roads to foreign companies, we urgently need to build a nationwide high speed rail system designed to serve people by saving energy and the environment.

To accomplish this goal, the next president should raise the price of gas to $5 per gallon and reduce the regressive social security tax.

On Day One, the future president should start making public televised appeals to rich investors and all who are invested in oil to follow the example of the Rockefellers and demand a board that will invest in renewables. I hope you realize that the oil companies can be squeezed too, if they're squeezed by the right people in the right way. Here's the perfect way to do it: publicly commend the Rockefellers for their actions and encourage all investors to follow suit. Period.