The opportunity is here right now, with oil and gas dropping while solar power goes up like a rocket. We can end the century-long domination of fossil fuels and get on with a cleaner, safer, more prosperous world powered by sun, wind, and water. Oh, and pry those clammy oily hands off our political systems while we’re at it. Solar power is going to win anyway. And we have the opportunity to speed that victory fast enough to stop the fracking-junkie pipeline push, including stopping Sabal Trail and the Palmetto Pipeline.

Jon Queally, Commondreams, 25 March 2015, Naomi Klein: Shock of Oil Price Plunge Is Opportunity World Must Seize,

“Sometimes capitalism gives us a gift, and the sudden drop in oil prices is one of them. Think of what we could do, in rolling out renewable energy, for instance. We could take power and wealth generation away from multinationals and put it into the hands of communities. And we could ensure that the jobs paid a living wage and went to the people who need it most. The same goes for our food and transit systems.”

“Low oil prices means that we can introduce a fair and meaningful carbon tax—something that is much harder to do when petrol is expensive. And if we don’t do it… oil prices will just encourage more dirty consumption. The money raised from that tax could go to green infrastructure which, in turn, would create a whole lot of jobs—the one million climate jobs that some labor groups have been calling for. And that kind of job creation makes a hell of a lot more sense than what the fossil fuel companies are currently demanding, which is a new wave of tax cuts and other bailouts, apparently so they won’t lay off more workers. That’s insane.”

“If public money is going to spent on energy jobs, it has to be for the jobs that will save us… not cook us.”

Divest from fossil fuels. Stop the pipelines. Invest in solar power now.

-jsq

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