PUTNEY — I have been thinking back on major federal government programs.
The most obvious major programs are wars. The Revolutionary War was, of course, fought by state militias (see the Second Amendment). The Department of War was formed in 1789. The 1812 war brought about the Navy and the exploits of General Andrew Jackson - then the list of wars goes on.
Major programs during the Lincoln administration were the Homestead Act, the agricultural colleges and extension services, teacher training schools, the Freedmen's Bureau, and Reconstruction generally.
The next non-war programs might be the New Deal - and that was a struggle to get past the conservative Supreme Court.
After World War II, national security became a major justification for these major programs. (It was also when the Department of War was renamed, with typical American hypocrisy, the Department of Defense.)
The proposal of Truman's Point Four Program - support for the United Nations, for world economic recovery, for strengthening nations against the dangers of aggression, and for a new program “Making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas” - is largely forgotten now, but it has basically continued one way or another ever since.
Eisenhower, of course, brought about the Interstate Highway System, justified on the grounds of national security.
Kennedy declared that the Apollo program would land men on the moon.
Under George H. W. Bush was the bailout of the savings and loan industry. Obama really had no choice about the bailout after the 2007 financial crash.
The reason I am referring to all this is to urge a vast new crash federal government program as of 2021, under which within 10 years, we will completely stop the use of fossil fuels to supply our energy needs.
The ability to do so exists now.
The political will to do it must be created.
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To create the political will, let us first go back to previous experience.
Before the Civil War, the disagreements were so bitter, so full of hatred, so radical, that some states formed a separate nation. Even within the remainder of the country, the politics were bitterly partisan.
Lincoln invoked the necessity to secure the integrity of the nation, and the North rallied to the cause.
Before World War I, pacifists and isolationists were bitterly opposed to getting involved in European affairs. I don't know how Wilson invoked national security, but again the nation rallied to the job, albeit about two years after the war started.
Before World War II, the politics were just as poisonous and partisan (more on factional lines than party lines) as they are at the present time. Japan's attack pulled us in. Germany's declaration a few days later rallied us to the full gamut of the war. Again, we came into it about two years after its declaration.
The fossil-fuel industry is causing a crisis to our national security by its ongoing contribution to ever accelerating climate change. We will again be two years late (as of now) in joining this cause with Europe and China (which could happen - we allied with Stalin before).
Our war aim would be to shut down the fossil-fuel industry for the production of heat and energy within 10 years.
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Is this time frame realistic?
Basically, we could build excess generating capacity with windmills and solar panels supplemented by geothermal, and we could rebuild the transmission systems.
All roofing would be required to generate electricity. Such roofing now exists.
The excess power would go into storage. The current emphasis is on batteries. To me, the more likely sink would be producing hydrogen fuel through electrolysis.
Hydrogen fuel is reputed to be more dangerous than gasoline, propane, or natural gas. How to store it safely is a key engineering problem.
The military would be ordered to be fossil-fuel-free in five years. Its research agency DARPA (for all its sinister under- and overtones) has the scientific and technological resources to explore how to do the job. Its work has often led to big advances which were then exploited by the civilian world.
The government can simply buy the assets of the fossil-fuel industry from its owners; doing so would surely be cheaper than dealing with the continuing damage being added to by the industry. The owners' proceeds can then be taxed so as to encourage other ways they can invest and make themselves rich.
The appraisals can presumably be more real than the real estate appraisals currently in the news.
In the future, perhaps the use of nuclear fusion to generate electricity can be commercially viable. Then all the windmills and solar panels can be thrown into the fusion chambers, along with the radioactive and hazardous waste now piling up.
Let us rally to meet this threat to our national security.