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Churchill was right!
In the history of the 20th century, many people stand out as possible heroes and it is very rare to find anyone argue that Winston Churchill wasn’t one. Churchill had all the factors needed to be a hero, which we believe are
The abilities needed to make the right decision
Being at the right time and right place
Communicating that decision to others and inspiring them to act the right way
Although with these talents came many flaws for Churchill, one of his best talents was communicating in simple phrases. One of his best phrases, in regard to the United States, was the following:
“You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after they have tried everything else.”
If we are at the precipice of a major climate disaster and to date tried many different approaches, then the agreement reached last week, entitled "The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022," could be the right thing after trying everything else.
Right before this was announced, we were set to write another pessimistic piece regarding a sustainable planet for two reasons, which we will mention now and then get back to explaining why this agreement may be the right thing.
First, one of the major changes in the years since coronavirus has been the explosion of aluminum can use for a variety of reasons. One reason being there are more stay-at-home meals with cans being used and another reason being there are more products, such as hard seltzers, moving to cans. That, combined with a broken recycling system where less and less aluminum cans are getting recycled, especially in California, has created a chance of shortage coming in the very near future.
Recycling rates of these cans has dropped from 91 percent to 73 percent since 2016. And since 65 percent of aluminum is recycled, this still is setting us up for rationing and aluminum canned product shortages on the supermarket shelves very soon.
Recycled policies for aluminum need to be revamped probably with higher deposit fees to stop this soon, and this is the first negative issue we noticed to write about this week. Why are we recycling less than five years ago if we are so worried about climate change?
Second, there are many failures in trying to figure out what to do with the increase in carbon in the atmosphere and trying to figure out whether it is causing the extreme disruptions we are having weather-wise right now or if it’s just like the cyclical issue we saw in 1930s.
How can’t we in the United States at least acknowledge the most inexpensive way to create new energy sources in most parts of the world? Why can’t we get things done when it will be in the best interest of all if so?
One reason we saw appearing in our research over the past few months was that the approach to making this happen in the United States needed to be corrected.
Last March we read an article entitled “Why America Can’t Build Big Things Anymore,” which stated the problem isn’t that we don’t have the right solutions or recognize this needs to be done to keep us economically competitive with countries like China, but we just don’t have the structure to get it done anymore.
Environmental regulations, the ability to stop projects going forward with many laws and all levels of government departments, and legal strategies to just delay and delay make progress moving forward seemed to be next to impossible. As the author states, “If we have 12 years to fight climate change, we can’t afford to take 17 years to build subway lines."
As a mater of fact, as we write this piece, there is now a threat that some parliamentarian approaches in congress might actually delay the Inflation Reduction Act. Note that we aren’t talking about compromise, we are talking about go or no go. Hopefully, we haven’t come to the point where if Churchill were alive today, he would have said something else.
But if Churchill was right, and we hope he was, this deal is a game changer. It helps all energy producers short term when we need a transition plan. Also, it really sets the cheapest energy alternatives, which are all non-carbon right now, to get even cheaper. This should give America the infrastructure to prosper and make energy even cheaper!
Here is our favorite article on it. If it passes next Sunday, I think I will take the Sunday drive to nowhere once again in my old 1979 Volkswagen convertible and give a couple young kids in the neighborhood a ride to get an ice cream with a smile on my face. But I won’t have a Coke in a can.